The study on the participation of Korean dentists in public posts

Abstract

There have been few reports about the manpower planning of dentists in the public sector in Korea. The purpose of this study was to research dentists' opinions about the public posts, and to suggest public health policies for the new dental manpower position. A total of 536 dentists were asked to fill out questionnaires inquiring about their opinions of public posts. We used an online survey methodology to involve 500 participants. The chi-square tests and frequency distributions were implemented to analyze the dentists' opinions about the public posts. The significance level of 0.05 was applied. A statistical package SPSS 21.0 was used for the analysis. An overwhelming majority of dentists (95.6%) answered that it is necessary to set up public posts for dentists. Respondents pointed out that the Korean Dental Association (35.5%) and the Ministry of Health and Welfare (33.2%) were the main institutes that should carry out this process. Especially, 47.4% of dentists answered they would quit their job if they had opportunities to fill public posts. Most dentists wanted to work as administrative officials (36.3%) in the public sector. Many dentists (62.4%) wanted to contribute to public welfare as health care professionals in public posts. Most of all, respondents (95.6%) answered that it is imperative to improve the manpower system of dentists in public posts.