Dental hygienists' perceptions of their professional status and prestige
Abstract
A national survey of dental hygienists was conducted to determine their perceptions of their professional status and prestige. In addition, this study was used to determine if differences exist between the perceptions of dental hygienists who are leaders in the field, directors of dental hygiene education programs, dental hygiene educators and private practitioners. Currently, there is no information within the dental hygiene literature that examines this relationship or makes comparisons between groups. A simple random sampling procedure was used to determine the sampled populations of dental hygienists who are leaders, directors of dental hygiene programs, dental hygiene educators and practitioners. Hall's Occupational Inventory and the Allied Health Professions Prestige Rating Scale were used. Two mailings of the instrument were conducted to establish an adequate response rate. A total of 1145 of the 1491 participants returned usable surveys yielding a 76.79 percent response rate. Mean scores for Hall's Occupational Inventory indicated that leaders had the strongest perception of professional status followed by directors, practitioners and educators. The ANOVA test revealed a statistically significant difference among the groups in terms of the total scale scores. Examination of control variables such as level of education and number of years involved in dental hygiene using ANCOVA did not reveal any significant differences among the groups. In terms of occupational prestige, the sampled population ranked dental hygiene third of thirteen allied health occupations. The ANOVA test revealed a statistically significant difference among the groups in terms of the relative ranking of dental hygiene as an occupation. The ANCOVA test did not reveal significant differences when the control variables were considered. The findings provide baseline information relative to the development of dental hygiene as a profession. Dental hygienists demonstrated strong perceptions of professional status and prestige. These perceptions may enable dental hygienists to understand how professional status and prestige impacts the development of dental hygiene as a profession.
Subject Area
Curriculum development|Dentistry|Health education
Recommended Citation
Gurenlian, JoAnn R, "Dental hygienists' perceptions of their professional status and prestige" (1991). Dissertations available from ProQuest. AAI9125660.
https://repository.upenn.edu/dissertations/AAI9125660