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 rapi dly deployed. Method. A non-university hospital in Saudi Arabia that e mploys several expatriate staff physicians undertook focused program e valuations of residencies in four disciplines in 1991 and again in 199 2. Interviews, written comments, and questionnaires were used to colle ct residents' ratings of their training and clinical instructors and t he residents' and staff physicians' perceptions regarding their educat ional contract, i.e., the personal agreement between teachers and lear ners. According to educational contract theory, clinical teachers adop t three basic roles (expert, model, or facilitator), as do residents ( dependent, competitive, or participant). Chi-square with Yates' correc tion was used for statistical analysis. Results. All 137 possible resp onses were returned (72 in 1991 and 65 in 1992). In 1991 the residents and staff physicians perceived the Saudi residents as mostly dependen t, and 71% of the residents thought that the staff physicians were exp erts 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 t he staff physicians to be facilitators (from 28% to 50%). Conclusion. The study compelled the staff physicians and residents to reexamine th eir perceptions of the educational contract between them. The resultan t tendency toward convergence of perception was instructive and mutual ly beneficial.