Perceptions of the educational contract among Saudi residents and western staff physicians in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND

Approved residency programs are increasingly being set up in Saudi Arabia and require that many Western staff physicians be rapidly deployed.

METHOD

A non-university hospital in Saudi Arabia that employs several expatriate staff physicians undertook focused program evaluations of residencies in four disciplines in 1991 and again in 1992. Interviews, written comments, and questionnaires were used to collect residents' ratings of their training and clinical instructors and the residents' and staff physicians' perceptions regarding their educational contract, i.e., the personal agreement between teachers and learners. According to educational contract theory, clinical teachers adopt three basic roles (expert, model, or facilitator), as do residents (dependent, competitive, or participant). Chi-square with Yates' correction was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS

All 137 possible responses were returned (72 in 1991 and 65 in 1992). In 1991 the residents and staff physicians perceived the Saudi residents as mostly dependent, and 71% of the residents thought that the staff physicians were experts or models. This percentage conflicted with the staff physicians' own perceptions of their role as facilitators (46%). In 1992 the staff physicians increasingly perceived the residents as competitive (from 5% in 1991 to 10% in 1992), and the residents increasingly perceived the staff physicians to be facilitators (from 28% to 50%).

CONCLUSION

The study compelled the staff physicians and residents to reexamine their perceptions of the educational contract between them. The resultant tendency toward convergence of perception was instructive and mutually beneficial.