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Level of professional ethics awareness and medical ethics competency of dental hygienists and dental hygiene students: the need to add ethics items to the Korean Dental Hygienist Licensing Examination
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Yoon-Sook Hwang
 , Jong-Hwa Jang, Kyung-Hee Kang, Minji Kim, Jeong-Ran Park, Sohyun Son, Sun-Mi Lee, Da-Yee Jeung, Jung-Eun Ha, Su-Min Hong, Young-Eun Jang
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J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2020;17:34. Published online November 17, 2020
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2020.17.34
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 Abstract
 PDF Supplementary Material
- Purpose
This study aimed to evaluate the level of professional ethics awareness and medical ethics competency in order to assess the potential need for ethics items to be included on the Korean Dental Hygienist Licensing Examination.
Methods
In total, 358 clinical dental hygienists and dental hygiene students completed a structured questionnaire to evaluate their level of ethical awareness and medical ethics competency. The sub-factors of medical ethics were classified into relationships with patients, medical and social relations, and individual specialized fields.
Results
Only 32.1% of participants indicated that they had taken a course on professional ethics in the university curriculum, but 95.2% of respondents considered professional ethics to be important. The overall score for medical ethics competency was average (3.37 out of 5). The score for relationships with patients was 3.75 points, followed by medical and social relations (3.19 points) and individual specialized fields (3.16 points). The level of professional ethics awareness was higher among participants who had taken a course on professional ethics than among those who had not done so or who did not remember whether they had done so.
Conclusion
Dental hygienists were aware of the importance of professional ethics, but their medical ethics competency was moderate. Therefore, medical ethics should be treated as a required subject in the university curriculum, and medical ethics competency evaluations should be strengthened by adding ethics items to the Korean Dental Hygienist Licensing Examination.
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Current issues and areas for improvement in the Korean Dental Hygienist National Licensing Examination: an expert Delphi survey among dental hygienists
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Yoon-Sook Hwang, Hyun-Sook Kang, Soo-Hwa Kim, Hee-Jung Moon, Sun-Mi Lee, Jae-Yeon Jung, Su-Jeong Hwang, Jung-Eun Ha
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J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2017;14:21. Published online September 13, 2017
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2017.14.21
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Abstract
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- Purpose
This study aimed to investigate current issues and areas for improvement in the Korean Dental Hygienist National Licensing Examination (KDHNLE) through an expert Delphi survey.
Methods
A Delphi survey was conducted from May through August 2016 in Korea. This Delphi survey included 20 persons representing the field of dental hygiene (7 groups from various dental hygiene-related organizations). The Delphi survey was administered through e-mail as 3 rounds of questionnaire surveys regarding the issues facing the KDHNLE and potential solutions to those challenges. The primary Delphi survey was an open questionnaire. In each round, subjects’ responses were categorized according to the detailed themes of their responses. The minimum value of the content validity ratio of the survey results was determined by the number of panels participating in the Delphi survey.
Results
Issues facing the KDHNLE were identified from the results of the Delphi survey. The following 4 items had an average importance score of 4.0 or higher and were considered as important by over 85% of the panels: the failure of the practical test to reflect actual clinical settings, the focus of the practical test on dental scaling, the gap between the items evaluated on the national examination and actual practical work, and insufficiency in strengthening the expertise of licensed dental hygienists. The following items were suggested for improvement: more rigorous rater training, adjustment of the difficulty of the licensing examination, the introduction of a specialized dental hygienist system, and more rigorous refresher training for licensed dental hygienists.
Conclusion
Based on the above results, the KDHNLE should be improved according to the core competencies of dental hygienists, including on-site clinical practice experience.
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KHPLEI
