Dental hygiene program directors' opinions of the clinical licensing examination: a Delphi study

Validity and reliability concerns regarding dental hygiene clinical licensing examinations have been described primarily in dental literature. In this study Directors of Dental Hygiene Programs in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands were asked to describe the best way to determine clinical competence prior to issuing the dental hygiene license. A total of forty-four directors from dental hygiene schools participated in at least one round of the study. Three rounds of the Delphi process were used to seek a level of consensus among panel members. Likert scale and ranking questionnaires followed the initial open-ended question, resulting in a list of the top 10 most agreed upon responses to the initial question. Results of this study suggest that dental hygiene clinical competence is best determined through ongoing process evaluations in the accredited dental hygiene program, rather than through a one-time product examination.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Health Studies

Grantor

Texas Woman's University

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• Patrick, Terri G.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Ward, Susan E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Cissell, William B.
• Beatty, Chris

• Dental care
• Health education
• Educational evaluation
• Health and environmental sciences
• Education

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11274/9585

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:twu-ir.tdl.org:11274/9585