ADHA's focus on advancing the profession: Minnesota's dental hygiene educators' response

Developing degree-completion programs to enable associate-prepared dental hygienists to complete a baccalaureate degree is essential to help advance the profession. This study determined current associate degree dental hygiene students' interest in degree completion, preferred educational venue, and examined if current interest in course topics supports the ADHA's Focus on Advancing the Profession. A 55-item survey was designed and distributed to 296 first-year and second-year dental hygiene students enrolled in 8 Minnesota associate degree programs during fall 2004. Seven of the 8 schools participated for a response rate of 69% (N=206). The survey included items to elicit interest in degree completion, preferred educational venue, and interest in course topics. Researchers grouped course topics according to the ADHA focus areas for advancing the profession (research, education, practice & technology, licensure & regulation, and public health). Results of the survey revealed that 66.0% of dental hygiene students are currently interested in completing their baccalaureate degree. The top 2 educational venues for program delivery include evening classes held in off-site locations near their home communities (50.4% very interested) and complete online class format (35.6% very interested). Students were least interested in completing coursework during traditional daytime hours (12.6% very interested). Interest in course topics related to technology (58.3 highly interested) and advanced clinical hand instrumentation (55.7% highly interested) were the strongest, while students were least interested in the design and implementation of research (8.3% highly interested), evaluating scientific literature (7.6% highly interested), and statistics (7.6% highly interested). This study reveals a strong demand for degree-completion programs, with preferred educational venues in nontraditional formats, such as evening classes in off-site locations or online course delivery, to attract the highest number of applicants. Students indicate the highest interest in course topics in the ADHA focus area of practice and technology, with the least interest in research. Development of degree-completion programs should design curriculum in a format that meets the needs of their targeted population, while including course topics that advance the profession as suggested by the ADHA focus areas.