title: Career choice and future design of dental students in China and Japan.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare career choice and future plans of dental students in China and Japan. Information was derived from a self-answered questionnaire. Significant differences were detected for eight items between the two countries. Regarding motivation towards career choice, 41% of Japanese students indicated positive motives related to helping others, achieving self-worth and health-care related interests, whereas Chinese students indicated that their choice was mainly for financial and prestige reasons, and for 32% of them, dentistry was a passive choice. More Chinese dental students (74%) wanted further education compared with Japanese students (22%). The majority of Japanese students (56.9%) planned to work as general dentists. Conversely, Chinese students were more likely to specialise (50%). More than 50% of Japanese students wanted to work in dental offices, but the majority of Chinese students (65%) preferred university hospital. We found it is strange that nearly one-fourth of the Chinese students did not want to be a clinical dentist mainly because of the poor health-care environment. This study provides a description of the perspectives of Japanese and Chinese dental students and enables a better understanding of career choices and future course design issues.
authors.affiliation: Department of Prosthodontics, School of Stomatology, China Medical University, Shenyang, China.
authors.forename: Xu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Xinwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yohei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jinno
authors.forename: Keishu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tachibana
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Kiyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Koyano
authors.forename: Hongjun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ai
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D002321:Career Choice; D002681:China; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003469:Culture; D003770:Dental Offices; D004499:Education, Dental, Graduate; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D019981:Health Care Sector; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008005:Licensure, Dental; D008019:Life Style; D009042:Motivation; D012570:School Admission Criteria; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D012931:Social Environment; D013039:Specialties, Dental; D013335:Students, Dental; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: China; Dental students; Japan; career choice; future design