Influential factors in students’ decision making to enter dental profession at Mahidol University.

Abstract

Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the influential factors on a student’s decision to choose dentistry as a career and to enroll in dental program at the Faculty of Dentistry, Mahidol University. Materials and methods: The questionnaire was used to collect data from first-year dental students at Mahidol University in the academic year of 2013. It was formulated into 2 parts; 1) personal information and 2) factors influencing the decision to choose dentistry and enroll in the university. To study the influential factors on choosing dentistry, two major areas; personal reasons and vocational reasons were evaluated. The institutional factors were investigated to determine the reasons to enroll in Mahidol University. The students were asked to rate the importance of each item based on a 5-point Likert scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). Results: Out of 110 students, 99 participated in this study. Results from the personal reasoning on choosing dentistry showed that ‘guidance and support from parents’ had higher influence than ‘good high school performance’. Regarding the vocational reason, ‘job security’ seems to be the predominant reason, followed by ‘desire to help other people’, and ‘work independently’. The institution factors were ranked from the highest to the lowest mean score as faculty facilities, reputation, alumni, and scholarship availability. Sociodemographic factors that showed statistically significant effects on each influential factor were the GPAX and admission system in the mean scores of ‘good high school performance’, and the domicile in those of ‘work independently’(p <0.05). Conclusions: Our results indicated that first-year Mahidol dental students is attracted to dentistry due to a positive perception of the work assurance, followed by the altruistic motivations of helping other people, and the ability to work independently. Additionally, the guidance and support from parents were among the important factors in the decision making.