The effect of a career planning workshop on graduate dental hygienists

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a career planning workshop on the career satisfaction, decisions, and plans of graduate dental hygienists. Method. A workshop was designed to teach graduate dental hygienists a systematic process for analyzing their needs and opportunities and making informed, realistic, and satisfying career decisions. This workshop incorporated vocational testing, interpretation by a professional counselor, lecture/discussion, small group interaction, and an accompanying manual of career planning resources and exercises. Sixty-nine dental hygienists attended a two-day workshop in fall 1990. Participants completed data collection instruments consisting of 42-item pre-assessment and 40-item follow-up questionnaires designed by the authors. Sixty-three completed the pre-workshop questionnaire. Fifty-four participants responded to the follow-up questionnaire mailed six months after the workshop. Data analyses included frequency distributions, percentages, means, and standard deviations. Paired t-tests and chi-square statistics were also calculated. Results. Findings from the pre-workshop questionnaire indicated that over 76% of participants had considered leaving their present position and 70% had considered leaving the profession. The six-month follow-up questionnaire revealed that four participants had changed dental hygiene employers and two had left the profession to pursue different careers. Forty-four percent reported that their feelings toward dental hygiene as a career had become more positive since attending the workshop. Pre-workshop to six-month follow-up responses indicated increased mean satisfaction in amount of challenge, compensation/rewards, and overall career satisfaction. Conclusions. The results of this study indicated that career planning workshops, in combination with other methods, are a useful strategy for helping dental hygienists maintain satisfaction, and have the potential to promote career longevity in the dental hygiene profession.