During the past five years there has been an increase in the number of women seeking doctoral degrees in dentistry and medicine. However, over the same period of time, there has been a decline in the number of women seeking baccalaureate degrees in dental hygiene and nursing. The United States Government and educators involved in these health fields are seeking explanations for such a phenomenon. It has been suggested that studies be conducted to identify factors and influences that affect health occupation choices among women. This present investigation examines specific occupational values, needs, concerns, and demographic characteristics to identify variables that may prove helpful in the advising of women students considering occupations in dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine or nursing students.

Participants in this investigation were first year female students enrolled in schools of dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine and nursing at the Universities of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. One hundred and forty-one students volunteered to complete a Hall's Occupational Orientation Inventory (HOOI) and a demographic questionnaire. The data obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using analysis of variance, Chi-square, factor and discriminant analysis. Data were grouped to determine the occupational orientation and demographic characteristic profiles of women students in dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine and nursing. Data were also grouped to examine factors that discriminate between women students in dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine and nursing, between women students in dental and medical health schools and between women students in male and female dominant health schools.

Findings indicate that there are occupational orientation profiles for women students in dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine and nursing and that these profiles are similar to one another. There is little evidence of demographic profiles for each of the four groups: however, some demographic trends were found that are consistent with research findings. The demographic questionnaire proved to be a better discriminator than the HOOI among the three groupings of data for discriminate analysis. However, the combination for the HOOI and the demographic questionnaire had the most discriminating power for all groups of the data except the male and female dominant health schools.