Attitudes of Shiraz Dental Students toward Their Discipline and Future Career

Introduction: Interest, motivation, and satisfaction toward job are the factors guarantee the success in occupation. Job satisfaction itself is influenced by social factors. The rising admission rates of dental schools have further increased the anxiety of their students in recent years. This investigation was conducted on dental students to assess their attitude toward future career and the discipline at the time of entrance and graduation. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 140 dental students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences within academic years 2010-2011 using a questionnaire made by researcher. The items of the questionnaire were about students’ attitude toward their discipline and future career. Data was analyzed by Kolmograph-Smirnove, ANOVA, and t-test. Results: The mean of total scores for the questionnaire related to student’s attitude toward their discipline (33.97+ 4.46) was higher than its theoretical mean score (27). The mean of total scores for the questionnaire related to student’s attitude toward their future career (16.42 +2.61) was lower than its theoretical mean (18). Investigating the difference between attitude toward discipline and future career among students of different semesters and age groups revealed no significant difference. Accordingly, no significant statistical difference was also realized between male and female students regarding the attitude toward discipline. But a statistically significant difference was observed between genders considering the attitude toward future career (P=0.037). Conclusion: This study showed that dental students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences are interested in their discipline whereas their attitude toward future career was not desirable. This represents their anxiety toward future career. The results of this study could be taken into consideration for future planning and therefore open up a brighter horizon for the future career of these students.