Motivation to Follow a Career in Dentistry of Students in Three South-East European Countries

OBJECTIVE: To investigate and compare the factors that motivated students to study dentistry in countries with similar background (Albania, Croatia and the Republic of Northern Macedonia) and to assess whether or not their motivation changed during time. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In 2014/2015, cross-sectional studies were conducted in state funded dental schools in Tirana (Albania), Zagreb (Croatia) and Skopje (Macedonia) to assess student views on their career motivation. All dental students from the first, third and final years of study were invited to participate. The participation was voluntary and anonymous. A five-item questionnaire was translated into languages of the participating countries. Ethics approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Skopje. The Chi square test was used to test if there were statistically significant differences in answers between students in 3 countries, furthermore between years of the study. RESULTS: The total number of respondents was 739 (319 in Tirana, 211 in Zagreb and 208 in Skopje) The differences in the answers between the first-year students from all three countries were statistically significant (χ(2)=82.65; p<.01). The most striking answer was to the question on parents' pressure to study dentistry, which was far more frequent in Tirana (up to 27.7%). A "positive image" was the most frequent response from students from Zagreb (up to 79.7%), but it declined from the first to the final year in Skopje. There were also significant differences between the schools within the 3(rd)and final years of study. CONCLUSIONS: A positive image of dental profession was the main reason for students studying dentistry at all three schools; as many as 97% of the students of the final year in Croatia, a member of the European Union (EU). In the two non-EU countries (Albania, Macedonia) it seemed that dental profession does not have such good status and student expectations are not being fulfilled, especially in Skopje (up to 33.9% willing to change their vocation and up to 64.5% lost their motivation to study) One of the strategies to improve the situation could be to include more clinical practice and to better organize the study..