
Factors that Affect the Career and Speciality Preferences of Dentistry Students in Turkey
JC06-JC11
Correspondence
Ömer Hatipog?lu,
Sütçü Imam Üniversitesi Dis¸ Hekimlig?i Fakültesi, Kahramanmaras¸, Onikisubat, Turkey.
E-mail: omerhtp@gmail.com
Introduction: Many factors may be effective in the career and speciality plans of dentistry students. Graduated students have to make a choice between immediately starting their professional life or choosing a speciality. The increased number of dentists in recent years may have affected the career plans of Turkish dentistry students.
Aim: To investigate the factors that affect the speciality and career choices of dentistry students in Turkey.
Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to 436 dentistry students via the internet including students in their 4th and 5th years of study. They were asked how much their career decisions were affected by the factors of income, comfort, job guarantee, patient type and place of living. Additionally, they were asked how much their speciality decisions were affected by the factors of income, comfort, enjoyment, talent, patient type and prestige. The data were analysed by using binary logistic regression analysis with descriptive statistics.
Results: The income factor was significantly more essential for male participants than the female participants in terms of their career preferences (p<0.001). Moreover, the comfort factor was more important for the fifth-year students in terms of their career choice (p=0.013). In their choice of speciality, the patient type factor was more important for the female participants (p=0.002).
Conclusion: The factors of income and prestige are the main essential factors in the career and speciality decisions of Turkish dentistry students.