Doctors Being Medical Teachers? Senior Doctors’ Experience of Teaching Roles at Two Hospitals in Oman

Background This qualitative study aims to explore senior doctors’ experiences and perceptions of their teaching roles in clinical settings at two hospitals, the Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH) and Royal Hospital of the Ministry of Health (RH), in the Sultanate of Oman.Methods In order to obtain an understanding of doctors’ clinical teaching experiences, this qualitative study uses critical realism as its methodology. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-seven senior doctors at SQUH and RH. The three-layered realities of critical realism - the empirical, the actual and the real, help generate rich findings and insightful analyses.Results The study shows that in the empirical domain, senior doctors perceived their educational roles in a wide spectrum from job titles to the relational nature of their teaching. It was also found that RH doctors felt their teaching roles are less valued than SQUH doctors due to their perception that the teaching mission of their hospital is not formally recognised. Interestingly in the actual domain, there is a lack of clear definition for medical teachers in policies. To explore this further, it is found that in the real domain, although dual missions of Omani hospitals, teaching and health care, are confirmed by Omani authorities, there is seen to be a neglect of educational roles at RH. It also discovered that professional development offered by the Medical Education Unit (currently known as Medical Education and Informatics Department) for medical teachers is limited due to its exclusion of junior doctors, who do a good amount of clinical teaching. Further, it was perceived as a missed opportunity for the Ministry of Health to recognise medical teachers by not including teaching experience in the promotion criteria for all ranks of seniority.Conclusions This qualitative study offers an in-depth understanding of senior doctors’ experiences of clinical teaching at two hospitals in Oman. The lack of clear policies and formal recognition for doctors’ teaching roles, no protected time for teaching, and differential teaching rewards have made RH doctors feel their roles as medical teachers unvalued compared to SQUH doctors. For the Omani government, hospital doctors in Oman would benefit from a positive culture which values medical teaching, gives a sense of belonging for medical teachers in hospitals, offers clear definitions for their teaching roles in policies, and extends the professional development to junior doctors. The study is of value for future research investigating the balance of teaching with other duties of a doctor, and from different perspectives; for example, junior doctors, medical students and other health professionals.