02-03

Jennifer M. Ledford, RDH, BSDH
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: Specialty tracks in dental hygiene curricula are employed to give students preparation for alternative career roles. The curricular course of study allows students to undergo extra coursework and extramural rotations to become more knowledgeable in a dental hygiene specialty. The purpose of this research project is to assess the outcomes of a specialty track system in a Baccalaureate dental hygiene program.

RESEARCH DESIGN: A survey will be developed, pilot tested, revised, and mailed to a sample of dental hygiene graduates from the baccalaureate dental hygiene program at the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry between 1987 to 1997.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Descriptive statistics will be used for this study. A non- parametric analysis of variance will be used for the ordinal scaled responses. For nominal responses, specialty tracks will be compared using chi-square analysis.