TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background: Little is known regarding young and future dentists’ career choices, professional identity, and working conditions in Germany. While the dental healthcare environment and demands in treatment are changing, it remains unclear what job perceptions young dentists have developed at the beginning of their work life and if and how these perceptions change during the subsequent years. The aim of this study was to survey future and young dentists regarding their professional identity, planned career paths, and working conditions and strains to understand career decisions and choices and enable policy makers to include future dentists‘ views and expectations in their decisions.
Methods/design: This study is a longitudinal nationwide survey over a time span of 4 years of dental students and young dentists in Germany and is comprised of three waves. The first wave focuses on dental students in their final year before the state examination and is composed of a qualitative pre-study in the form of focus groups and a quantitative main survey in the form of a questionnaire. The end points were established to analyse (1) the professional identity of the young future dentists; (2) their career paths, preparation for a career, and basic career conditions; and (3) perceived conditions and strains. The aim of the overall survey was to depict the development of these three aspects during the first years of work life. All of the questions were evaluated with a descriptive univariate analysis. The analysed subgroups were grouped according to gender, target working condition (employed/self-employed), and primary socialisation (parents dentists/parents not dentists).
Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the only study which focuses on career choices, professional identity, and working conditions of future and young dentists in Germany. The longitudinal observation provides information that is essential for professional and purposive dental health care planning, and to meet the oral health demands and needs of the German population appropriately over the long term.
AD  - n.kettler@idz-koeln.de
Institute of German Dentists (IDZ)
Universitätsstr. 73
50931 Cologne
Germany
AU  - Kettler, Nele
AU  - Frenzel Baudisch, Nicolas
AU  - Micheelis, Wolfgang
AU  - Klingenberger, David
AU  - Jordan, A. Rainer
DO  - 10.1186/s12903-017-0417-y
IS  - 1
KW  - Professional identity
Career choices
Working conditions
Dental professional’s research
Workforce,
Dental students
L1  - internal-pdf://1228710434/Kettler-2017-Professional identity, career cho.pdf
PY  - 2017
SN  - 1472-6831
ST  - Professional identity, career choices, and working conditions of future and young dentists in Germany – study design and methods of a nationwide comprehensive survey
T2  - BMC Oral Health
TI  - Professional identity, career choices, and working conditions of future and young dentists in Germany – study design and methods of a nationwide comprehensive survey
VL  - 17
ID  - 4121
ER  -