Level of professional ethics awareness and medical ethics competency of dental hygienists and dental hygiene students to add ethics items in the Korean dental hygienist licensing examination

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the level of professional ethics awareness and medical ethics competency in order to grasp the criteria of ethics items for the Korean dental hygienist licensing examination. Methods: Using a structured questionnaire, 358 clinical dental hygienists and e dental hygiene students were evaluated for their level of ethical awareness and medical ethics competency. The sub-factors of medical ethics were measured by classifying them into relationship with patients, medical and social relationships, and individual specialized fields. Results: As a result of the survey, the vocational ethics completion rate in the university curriculum was 32.1%, but 95.2% of respondents said that vocational ethics is important. Medical ethics competency was average, with a score of 3.37 out of 5, followed by 'relationships with patients (3.75 points)', 'health and social relations (3.19 points)', and 'individual specialties (3.16 points).' The level of vocational ethics awareness was higher in the group who completed the vocational ethics curriculum than the group who did not complete the course or the group who did not know whether to complete it. Conclusion: Dental hygienists are aware of the importance of occupational ethics, but medical ethics competency has been found to be at a mid-level. Therefore, medical ethics should be treated as a required subject in university curriculum, and medical ethics competency evaluation should be strengthened through adding ethics items to the Korean dental hygienist licensing examination.