Steps towards determining the right number of dental recruits the navy should access to meet the projected targets for Navy Dental Corps Officers

Abstract

This thesis took steps towards determining the right number of dentists the Navy should recruit to meet projected targets. Dental Corps data were provided from the Dental Corps Manpower office covering fiscal years 1984 through 2005. The accession sources for Dental Corps officers were a concern at the onset of this study. One goal of the research was to determine whether or not certain behaviors were associated with particular accession programs. The results showed that no particular accession source dominated any of the five specialties that were selected. To develop the loss rates, data from two Excel files, "DC Total Inventory" and "DC Losses" were merged. After merging the files, only one record per dentist remained from fiscal years 1988 through 2005. This evolution produced 3,643 records that portray each dentist's career. The loss rate results suggest that once Dental Corps officers reach their tenth year they are less likely to leave the military than in earlier years. This would suggest that retention incentives should be focused during the fourth through sixth years of the Dental officer's career. Oral Surgeons, however, are more likely than the other specialties to leave the military after their tenth year.