The information-seeking patterns of dental hygienists in northern British Columbia and their response to the 1993 fluoride guidelines.

Information a c c e ss is n ecessa ry for the health care professional to stay current and provide good patient care. W hen organizations change policy o r recom m endations, it is im portant for the information to be d issem inated to th e practitioners in the field. The su c c e ss o f the information dissem ination is dependen t on both the organization and practitioner. T he literature indicates that m ost health care professionals a re dependen t on oral and printed information sources such a s d iscussions with colleagues and reading joum al articles. Although there h a s been an explosion of electronic information retrieval and com m unication m ethods, health care providers have been slow to adop t th e se m ethods. T here a re few stud ies that have specifically looked a t th e information-seeking practices of dental hygienists. This descriptive study explored the m ethods that dental hygienists in northern British Colum bia have utilized to a c c e ss information. The 1993 C anadian Dental Association fluoride guidelines w ere used a s th e basis of a "case study" to investigate if dental hygienists had a c c e sse d and adopted recently revised information. A self-adm inistered questionnaire w as se n t to the 130 dental hygienists registered in the North and 106 com pleted questionnaires w ere retum ed for a resp o n se rate of 81.5%. T he findings show that dental hygienists in northern British Columbia a re utilizing traditional information sources. T he m ost frequently utilized m ethods to obtain information are: discussion with colleagues, reading joum al articles, and reading mailings from the British Columbia Dental Hygienists Association and the College of Dental Hygienists of British Columbia. T he least utilized information sou rces are the indices to th e literature and electronic information sources. Geographic isolation, lack V