We are focusing on the enhancement of the rights and interests of dental hygienists through research and seeking enactment of the relevant laws including the Law on medical technicians, Medical Service Act, Local Public Health Act, School Health Act and National Health Enhancement Act, improvement of the conditions of employment and work environment of dental hygienists, establishment of the proposal for the unification of the job classification and description for each of the medical institutions, research on the means of legal security on the regulations for the prescribed number of and means of coping with medical accidents by dental hygienists, improvement of the members working at public health institutions, survey and research on the supply and demand of the manpower, pursuit of the standardization and expansion of the tasks of the dental hygienists, and research on the professional dental hygienist system.
We are pursuing surveying of the status of education, establishment of the standard (proposal) for the educational program for the reorganization of educational system, new establishment of educational subjects for the expansion of the scope of works, improvement of the system of enrollment and transfer into educational courses, development of study goals of dental hygiene department, development of program and unification proposal for the on-site clinical practicum programs, improvement of the national qualification examination system, development and operation of a diverse range of educational programs, and effective implementation of refresher training.
We are encouraging academic activities and exchange of information through a wide range of activities including holding of comprehensive symposiums, publication of research literatures and professional books, support for subsidiary associations, encouragement and awarding of academic activities, development of medium for the oral health education and dispatchment of representatives to the international general assembly of IFDH.
We are not only implementing activities aimed at enhancing the national oral heath through the events of the Day of Oral Health on June 9 every year but also voluntary services at nation-wide level by organizing voluntary service committee through cooperation with relevant organizations for disabled persons. In addition, we received support for mobile dental hygiene units on wheels from the Lotto Public Interest Foundation and allocated throughout the country for the implementation of more efficient public oral health projects. We also developed and distributed a diverse range of programs for those working in the public oral health areas, braille oral health medium for the visually impaired persons for the first time in Korea and magnetic board-type oral health education materials for young children. Furthermore, we executed a wide range of events including performances of puppet show and education on the tooth brushing for the application of fluoride to the children who participated in various health expositions.
We applied full membership of the International Federation of Dental Hygienists (IFDH) on September 29, 1988 and was approve as a full member at the 11th International General Assembly of the IFDH held in Ottawa, Canada in 1989. 2 representatives of the member countries of IFDH are actively involved in the activities of IFDH as directors. As a member country of IFDH, we have been dispatching our representatives (IFDH director and members) to the General Assemblies of IFDH held at every 3-year interval, including the 11th General Assembly in Ottawa, Canada in 1989, followed by Hague in Netherland (the 12th ), Tokyo in Japan (the 13th ), Florence in Italy (the 14th ), Sydney in Australia (the 15th ) and Madrid in Spain (the 16th ). We are also providing opportunities to acquire international academic information to our members by inviting notable foreign speakers including the President of the IFDH and dispatched our representatives to other international conferences including the General Assembly and academic symposiums held by International Conference of Preventive Dentistry and American Dental Hygienists Association, In addition, we are actively pursuing international exchanges including the opening of Dental Hygiene College by dispatching the president of our Association to Uzbekistan where the area of dental hygiene is not known widely.
