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Dental hygienists' information seeking and computer application behavior
Author(s) -
Gravois SL,
Bowen DM,
Fisher W,
Patrick SC
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/j.0022-0337.1995.59.11.tb02985.x
Subject(s) - credibility , dental hygiene , curriculum , medical education , continuing education , continuing professional development , professional development , medicine , psychology , pedagogy , political science , law
A questionnaire requesting information on information seeking, critical analysis, and computer applications was returned in 1992 by 136 of 197 (69 percent) currently licensed dental hygienists residing in Alaska, Delaware, and Idaho. The most common sources used for professional development and information retrieval were continuing education courses, discussions with colleagues, and journals. The respondents' own experience, credibility of the journal, and discussions with colleagues were the most frequent methods used to evaluate professional information. Many hygienists owned or had access to a computer, yet they rarely conducted online database searches to obtain professional information. The computer was primarily used to perform business functions rather than for clinical applications in these dental hygienists' employment settings. The majority of these hygienists were interested in attending related continuing education courses and indicated that computer skills should be part of dental hygiene curricula.