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Career satisfaction of P ennsylvanian dentists and dental hygienists and their plans to leave direct patient care
Author(s) -
Vick Brandon
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of public health dentistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1752-7325
pISSN - 0022-4006
DOI - 10.1111/jphd.12119
Subject(s) - patient care , family medicine , job satisfaction , medicine , nursing , psychology , social psychology
Objective The aim of this study is to explore a number of practice‐related dynamics between dentists and dental hygienists, including their career dissatisfaction, plans to leave direct patient care, hiring difficulties, and full‐time work. Methods Data come from the 2013 Pennsylvania Health Workforce Surveys, a sample of 5,771 dentists and 6,023 dental hygienists, and logistic regression is used to estimate the relationships between outcome areas – dissatisfaction, plans to leave patient care, and hiring/job outcomes – and a number of explanatory variables, including demographic and practice characteristics. Results Dentists working in practices that employ hygienists have lower odds of reporting overall dissatisfaction and of leaving patient care in the next 6 years than those that do not employ hygienists. Dental hygienists that work full‐time hours across two or more jobs have higher odds of dissatisfaction than those who work full‐time in one job only. Part‐time work in a single hygienist job is associated with higher odds of leaving the career, relative to having a single, full‐time job. Conclusions Results suggest that employment of dental hygienists is associated with lower career dissatisfaction and extended careers for dentists. However, a number of dentist characteristics are associated with difficulty hiring hygienists, including rural practice, nonwhite race, and solo ownership. Only 37.5 percent of hygienists work in a single, full‐time job, an outcome related to lower dissatisfaction and extended careers for hygienists. Characteristics associated with this job outcome include having an associate degree, having a local anesthesia permit, and not working for a solo practice.