Hygiene/Therapy students' motivation to study in one London dental school

Objectives: To investigate the motivation to study of Hygiene/Therapy students at King's College London Dental Institute. Methods: Students entering training in two academic years participated during the first semester of their studies in seven focus groups (n=50), exploring the reasons for their choice of profession. The findings were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using Framework Methodology. Results: Five overarching themes behind students' choice of a career in Hygiene/Therapy emerged from focus groups discussions: these were a ‘desire to work with and help people', ‘previous career related experiences', ‘personal reasons', ‘social influences' and ‘features of the job'. The ‘desire to work with and help people' was widely expressed by the students, as were ‘previous career related experiences': the students perceived their training as a positive step in their career development, especially those with a dental nursing background who saw their training as an opportunity to improve their status, expand their skills and take on clinical duties, as opposed to their previous career. ‘Personal reasons' included balancing a family life and affordability of study. ‘Social influences' were both positive and negative as demonstrated by a supportive family, as well as through self-induced pressure from negative comments. ‘Features of the job' included job availability, flexibility, security and potential income. Dual qualification in Hygiene/Therapy was regarded by students as an important motivating factor; they perceived it would increase their options of employment and future professional independence. Conclusions: The findings suggest that these two cohorts of hygiene/therapy students were motivated to study by reasons similar to other dental professionals; for this group of students there is further evidence that previous career experiences and life events contributed in shaping their occupational aspirations, thus lending support to career choice theories, such as the Social Cognitive Career Theory