Abstract
Objectives : This study aims to analyze the factors and degree of stress, which dental hygienics students experience during the off-campus practical training period at university/general dental hospitals or dental hospitals/clinics, to strategically plan and operate an efficient practical training, and to exploit such data for development of the said students into professional dental hygienists by nurturing their abilities to effectively cope with the potential educational frustration, demotivation, and skepticism on their occupations in advance. Methods : The stress measurement tool is set for 38 questions in total, The grading system for each question is based on 5-point Likert scale, which interprets that the lower score demonstrates a higher level of stress. The data collected as above are analyzed by SPSS 19.0. Results : The satisfaction "Satisfactory" of extramural practice at departments of dentistry of university and general hospitals and dental hospitals and clinics is 48.3% and 37.7% respectively. Environment area (p<.001) and role & activity area (p<.05) showed a significant difference of stresses between practices at departments of dentistry of university and general hospitals and dental hospitals and clinics. For departments of dentistry of university and general hospitals, the stress in environment area was highest. On the contrary, students who did practices at dental hospitals and clinics showed that the stress is highest at role & activity area. There was a positive correlation of areas of environment, personal relations, role & activity, and ideal & value. However, there was no correlation between treatment fields. Conclusions : In conclusion, educational institutes need to conduct a specialized systematic research establishing close relationships extramural practice organs, in order to minimize students' stress resulting from extramural practices by type and to increase the effect of extramural practices.