INFORMATION-SEEKING PRACTICES OF DENTAL HYGIENISTS

This paper reports on a survey of the information-seeking, critical-an alysis, and computer-application practices of dental hygienists. Quest ionnaires were mailed to a convenience sample of seventy-one dental hy giene practitioners. A 62% response rate was achieved. Results indicat ed that discussions with colleagues, continuing education courses, jou rnals, and newsletters were the sources used most frequently for profe ssional development and information retrieval. To evaluate professiona l information, these hygienists tended to rely on personal experience, credibility of the journal, and discussions with colleagues. Word pro cessing was the most frequently used computer application; online data base searching was rare in this group. Computer use within the employm ent setting was primarily for business rather than clinical applicatio ns. Many hygienists were interested in attending continuing education courses on use of computers to acquire professional information.