Abstract

Japanese dental hygienists' employment rate is low. The environment factors and daily job contents that contribute to willingness to work of Japanese dental hygienists and their structures were investigated. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a self-administered postal questionnaire distributed for one thousand and twenty-three members of Japan Dental Hygienist Association registered in Iwate prefecture affiliation. Three items concerning willingness to work, satisfaction for the 9 items about working environment, anxiety for work, and 106 daily job contents were used for analysis. Structural equation modeling, decision analysis, and correspondence analysis were carried out. The present study found that working environment such as interpersonal relationship was more important than social environment such as salary for the regular employee of Japanese dental hygienist working at private dental office. However, salary was only the determinant for the dental hygienist who strongly disliked their work. And daily job contents affected the willingness to work. Especially, jobs concerned with prosthodontic treatments were of major concern. Improving the working environment and avoiding assignment of tasks that require lower level of skill may improve dental hygienists' willingness to work and may assist to improve the employment rate of dental hygienist in Japan.

Highlights

  • Dental hygienists must be competent and well qualified to be accepted by society [1]. e demand for dental hygienists has grown in recent decades, and their professional roles are continuously changing based on the national healthcare service system [2]

  • Improving the working environment may be important for dental hygienists and may decrease their likelihood of leaving the profession. ese challenges are intertwined, and their interactions add to the complexity of the low employment rate among dental hygienists

  • We investigated specific environmental factors that contribute to the willingness to work among Japanese dental hygienists and their working conditions

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Summary

Background

Dental hygienists must be competent and well qualified to be accepted by society [1]. e demand for dental hygienists has grown in recent decades, and their professional roles are continuously changing based on the national healthcare service system [2]. In the aging Japanese society, the visiting care support system has become prevalent, and the educational program described above supports the work of dental hygienists in this system. E factors that lead dental hygienists to leave clinical practice include increasing family responsibilities [16]; a lack of dental hygiene training and experience; employee benefits [17]; and a lack of respect, collaboration, and appreciation from employers [18]. Improving the working environment may be important for dental hygienists and may decrease their likelihood of leaving the profession. Ese challenges are intertwined, and their interactions add to the complexity of the low employment rate among dental hygienists. We investigated specific environmental factors that contribute to the willingness to work among Japanese dental hygienists and their working conditions. We sought to identify the specific daily job contents that led to dissatisfaction among dental hygienists

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