Comparative Career Decision-Making Survey Results, by Dental Student Status

Objectives: To compare individual student response consistency, by dental class, concerning survey questions relating to career decision making. Methods: At the onset of two consecutive academic years, dental students responded to a written survey concerning potential influential factors for their immediate career expectations after graduation. Responses for three University of Iowa dental classes (e.g., D3 in 2006, now D4 in 2007 [D3-D4]) were analyzed to determine consistency at the two time points, using kappa statistics and symmetry test for nominal and ordinal responses and Wilcoxon signed-rank test and intraclass correlation for continuous responses. Statistical significance was established at p < 0.05. Results: Only the D3-D4 cohort demonstrated a significant change for immediate career plans after graduation (kappa=0.50, symmetry test p value=0.0486), with a greater percentage for specialty or other training for the latter survey (29.1% vs. 10.9%). Conversely, both D1-D2 (p < 0.0001, ICC=0.31) and D2-D3 (p=0.0017, ICC=0.19) cohorts expressed a greater willingness to explore alternative dental career options at the initial survey time. Only the D2-D3 cohort demonstrated a significant change for desiring to be their own boss (p=0.0341, ICC=0.45) and desire to own practice (p=0.0315, ICC=0.39), with greater mean response scores at the latter survey. The D1-D2 cohort was the only group with a statistically significant difference for mean comfort scores for the dental office responsibility of hiring staff (p <0.0001, ICC=0.30) and general business activities (p <0.0001, ICC=0.03), both of which had greater mean scores for the initial survey. Conclusion: These dental students had high consistency for many responses contained in a follow-up survey that explored possible factors which may be associated with immediate post-graduation plans. However, there may be other variables, as well as critical times during the curriculum, that are indicative of some shifts in the decision-making process.