Factors that influence Region I NHSC dentists' career decisions
Date
1981
DOI
Authors
Katz, Mary Jane
National Health Service Corps (US)
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
The National Health Service corps was established by Congress in 1970 to recruit health professionals to critical health manpower shortage areas, so designated by the State Comprehensive Health Planning Agency (CHPA), based upon U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare guidelines (1).
The NHSC has a two-fold mission: to provide good health care to people in need, and to help these communities build and develop their own independent ongoing health systems. Coupled with its Scholarship program (1972), the NHSC has been successful in recruiting dentists to rural and inner-city shortage areas and in establishing primary-care practices with community input. However, these practices become economically independent in only ten to fifteen percent of the cases. The remaining eighty-five to ninety percent of the practices either close, because the dental officers leave after a two-year obligation, or they continue to operate as federally-subsidized practices with salaried dentists and community management. The purpose of this study was to identify some of the reasons for dentists' leaving their assigned sites after an initial two-year commitment, as well as to understand some of the reasons for Corps' members' dissatisfaction with their placements. A survey questionnaire was mailed to thirty-four Region 1 NHSC dentists with the assistance of the region director; the response rate was eighty-eight percent, with thirty of the thirty-four surveys returned. In addition, four on-site visits to present Corps' assignees were made to gain an understanding of the reasons why a dentist might stay with or leave the Corps.
Analysis of survey data indicated that urban dentists focused on practice management issues as their major cause of dissatisfaction, while rural practitioners were more dissatisfied with extra-practice factors, eg. "not enough social stimulation", "poor schools", etc. No clearly definable factors were identified that influenced dentists' career decisions, although current economic market forces have recently made staying with the Corps more attractive.
Description
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Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Graduate Dentistry, 1981 (Dental Public Health)
Bibliography : leaves 39-40.
Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University, Henry M. Goldman School of Graduate Dentistry, 1981 (Dental Public Health)
Bibliography : leaves 39-40.
License
This work is protected by copyright. Downloading is restricted to the BU community. If you are the author of this work and would like to make it publicly available, please contact open-help@bu.edu.