THE FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCY OF DENTAL HYGIENE STUDENTS

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.439487 Abstract: The purpose of this study is to understand factors affecting on communication competency in dental hygiene students. From September 20 to October 20, 2016, 439 students participated in survey through structured questionnaire. The results showed that mean of communication competency was 3.46±0.41 and mean of communication apprehension was 3.26±0.59, speech apprehension was highest in sub-factors of communication apprehension. The group of intention to receive communication education and the group of interpersonal satisfaction showed high communication competency and self-efficacy, low communication apprehension. But differences of communication competency according to communication education experience was not statistically significant. A negative correlation was found between communication competency and communication apprehension, self-efficacy and communication apprehension. A positive correlation was observed between communication competency and self-efficacy. The higher self-efficacy and the satisfaction with interpersonal relation, the higher communication competency is. In conclusion, to increase communication competency of dental hygiene students it needs efforts to improve self-efficacy and satisfied interpersonal relationship as well as communication skill education.


INTRODUCTION
Communication means a process of using several methods, including languages, behavior, and writing, to deliver personal ideas, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs and share meanings among at least two individuals 1 . So good communication can refer to a condition in which individuals have a good understanding of others' intended meanings and accept them. Communication competency can refer to an ability to use communication methods to interact with others 2 .  Communication competency was negatively correlated with communication apprehension (p<0.01) and was positively correlated with self-efficacy (p<0.01). Communication apprehension was negatively correlated with self-efficacy (p<0.01) <Table 4>.

FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCY
The multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the factors affecting communication competency and obtained the results as presented in Table 5. As for goodness-of-fit of the model, F-value was 68.699 and significance probability was 0.000 (p<0.05). The factors affecting communication competency were self-efficacy and interpersonal relationships. Statistically insignificant variables were not indicated. The higher level of self-efficacy and the more satisfied with interpersonal relationships, the greater communication competency (p<0.05), which accounted for 25.3%.

FACTORS AFFECTING COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION
The multiple regression analysis was performed to identify the factors affecting communication apprehension and obtained the results as presented in Table 6. As for goodness-of-fit of the model, F-value was 106.085 and significance probability was 0.000 (p<0.05). The factors affecting communication apprehension were self-efficacy and interpersonal relationships. The lower level of self-efficacy and the more dissatisfied with interpersonal relationships, the greater communication apprehension (p<0.05), which accounted for 34.5%.

3.7.DISCUSSION
The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting communication competency of dental hygiene students. The results of this study can be summarized as follows.
64.6% of the students considered communication skills to be very important. Ryu, Yang, and Choi 12 also found that dental hygiene students felt the great need for the subjects of healthcare communication, believed in the crucial effects of communication capability on the relationships with patients, and suggested the need for the subjects related to communication as well as for knowledge concerning the major. However, more respondents considered communication education to be necessary rather than to be very necessary; 78.2% intended to participate in the education, if required, and 13.9% intended to participate actively in the education. They were aware of the importance of communication but were passive toward communication education. As for the desired type of communication education, lectures were more desired than those requiring active participation, such as role play. More than a half of the students had communication education experience and got the education in the form of classes within the curriculum. It seems that lots of students are aware of the importance of communication but don't consider communication-related classes to be effective and have no great interest in the classes. There was no statistically significant difference in communication competency by communication education experience. It is considered that the current communication-related classes failed to improve communication competency for students. Since there are few chances to get external education to improve communication competency, it is necessary to include communication-related classes in the college curriculums 18 . It is therefore necessary to develop an education program that can induce students to participate actively in the communication process, not simply lectures, in pursuit of effective education at college 19 .
The mean for communication competency was 3.46. The research in dental hygiene students 13 found it was 3.31 and the one using a different instrument in dental hygienists 10 이진 found it was 3.42. The research in nursing students 20 got a higher score (3.73) than this study and Lim 13 noted that nursing students' greater communication competency was related to communication education. The Korean Accreditation Board of Nursing Education suggests communication competency as key capability that a nurse is required to be equipped with and communication education is considered very important in nursing curriculums 18 .
Among the sub-factors for communication apprehension, speech apprehension was at the highest level (3.50). The research on office workers 7 found that speech apprehension was at the highest level among the sub-factors for communication apprehension and scored 3.11, which was lower than students. Lots of chances for presentation or discussion in working life are expected to allow them to feel less apprehension due to experience. The efforts to allow many students to have chances for presentation during the course of classes as well as in communication-related classes and to include the course for expressing their opinions and listening to others' opinions through discussion are expected to help students reduce communication apprehension.
The group that intended to participate actively in communication education and the one satisfied with interpersonal relationships showed the highest level of communication competency and