Rahul Naidu1, J Tim Newton2 and Katie Ayers3
1School of Dentistry, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies
2Oral Health Services Research & Dental Public Health, King's College London School of Dentistry, King's College London, UK
3Department of Oral Health, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Abstract
Background
The aim of this study was to compare the expressed levels of career satisfaction of three groups of comparable dental healthcare professionals, working in Trinidad, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Methods
Three questionnaire surveys were carried out of comparable dental healthcare professionals. Dental nurses in Trinidad and dental therapists in the UK and New Zealand. Questionnaires were sent to all registered dental nurses or dental therapists.
Results
Career satisfaction was lowest amongst Dental Therapists working in Trinidad and Tobago. Approximately 59% of the Therapists working in New Zealand reported stated that they felt they were not a valued member of the dental team, the corresponding proportion in the United Kingdom was 32%, and for Trinidad 39%.
Conclusion
Dental therapists working in different healthcare systems report different levels of satisfaction with their career.
BMC Health Services Research 2006, 6:32. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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