Polish Journal of Public Health

Chair and Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Medical University of Lublin, Poland

---

10.2478/pjph-2014-0017

Introduction. Higher education institutions thoroughly analyze the labor market. Knowing the career plans of students is important information showing the potential and direction of development of the labor market.

Aim. The aim of the study was to gather information on career plans and further development of graduates of the Division of Dentistry, Medical University of Lublin in the years 2004-2012.

Material and methods. The survey covered a group of 743 graduates of medical-dental faculty. Students filled in an anonymous questionnaire after passing the exam in conservative dentistry with endodontics. The questions concerned the location and nature of future work, as well as the desire to specialize and determining the area in which the graduate is planning to specialize.

Results. The question: “Where are you planning to start work after graduation?” – was answered by more than 35% of the students: “In a big city outside of Lublin.” Over 24% of respondents expressed a desire to return to their hometown, and 21% declared remaining in Lublin. Approximately 13.6% of respondents were considering going abroad, and about 5.65% of the students declared choosing village or a small town, as a place for future work. Among all graduated students, 45.5% would like to work in a medical joint venture, 38.5% wishing to undertake business activity in their own dental office. Only 7.4% of students declared their desire to remain at the university and carry out scientific work. The vast majority of graduates (87.35%) expressed the desire for specialization. The most frequently indicated specialization was conservative dentistry with endodontics – the choice was indicated by 22.62% of the respondents. Students expressed similar interest in further development

in the field of oral surgery (20.33%), prosthodontics (20.33%) and orthodontics (18.58%).

Conclusions. Most of the students of dental-medical major of Medical University of Lublin after graduation planned to work in Poland. The respondents were planning to work primarily in medical partnerships or to open their own dental offices. The vast majority of respondents declared a desire to get specialization.