The Effect of Dental Hygienist’s on the Medical Ethics Course in College on Medical Information Protection Agreement and Practice

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the effect of dental hygienist’s ethic course attendance on medical information protection agreement and practice and to analyze the relevant factors. Methods: The study population consisted of 125 active dental hygienists. Each medical information protection agreement measurement tool and medical information protection practice measurement tool consisted of 21 items for a total of 42 items. A multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the factors affecting the degree of medical information protection agreement and practice. Results: There was significant differences in the mean values of degree of dental hygienist’s medical information protection agreement and practice, showing the higher agreement score being correlated with higher practice score (p<0.05). Among dental hygienists who attended ethics courses, those with longer work experience tended to show higher degree of medical information protection agreement and practice (p<0.05). Conclusions: It is determined that in order to improve the degree of medical information protection agreement and practice among dental hygienists, dental hygiene curriculum should add additional instructional hours to the relevant courses to the curriculum, and at the same time, it is necessary to continue to train current active dental hygienists through continuing professional education and new dental hygienist education.