ارزیابی میزان و عمل اشتیاق به ادامه تحصیل در دانشجویان دندانپزشکی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی رفسنجان

  Background and Objectives: Postgraduate dental education (PGDE) is an elective and personal decision for pursuing further education, which has various reasons. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the causes of postgraduate aspiration, to determine their specialty interests and factors influencing choices of specialty in dental students at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences.   Materials and Methods : This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on all dental students in 2011. The information was collected through face-to-face interviews and by a questionnaire containing demographic characteristics, rate of admission in dental residency, 16 and 10 questions about the aspiration and disinterest to PGDE selections of the first three choices and 7 questions about reasons to choose these three specialties. The questions were designed according to 5-point Likert scale. Validity and reliability of questionnaire were confirmed by expert specialists and test retest. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, t-test and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.   Results : In this study, all of 137 dental students took part with mean age of 22.2 ± 2.4 years, which 57.7% were females. The majority of students (87.6%) were interested in continuing specialized education. The students mentioned that increased clinical skill and knowledge, obtaining better social opportunities, acquiring better jobs and promotion to occupational esteem were the most important factors for their aspiration to continuing specialized education. Inclination to work after graduation and tiredness of education were the most important factors in the disinterests in continuing specialized education. Specialty fields which seemed most interesting to the students included: Orthodontics (53.3%), Oral and maxillofacial surgery (14.6%), Restorative dentistry (8%), Paediatrics (7.3%), Prosthodontics (5.8%), Endodontics (4.4%), Oral and maxillofacial radiology (2.9%), Community dentistry (1.5%), Periodontics (1.5%) and Oral and maxillofacial pathology (0.7%). Interest in the scientific content of the field, financial income and social esteem were the main causes of choosing specialty fields for the students.   Conclusion : The present survey shows that the majority of dental students have postgraduate aspirations because of increase in the clinical skills and knowledge and obtaining better social opportunities and orthodontics was the first choice for most of them.   Key words: postgraduate aspiration, dental student, dental education, dental specialty fields     Funding: This research was funded by the Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences.   Conflict of interest: All the authors are among the editorial board or editorial staff of JRUMS.   How to cite this article : Sadeghi M, Bahgerian A . Postgraduate Aspiration in Dental Students at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences J Rafsanjan Univ Med Scie 2013 12(2): 103-14. [Farsi]