Clinical Supervision of Medical Students in Primary Health Care Services: General Practitioners' Perspectives in Morocco.

Abstract

Clinical supervision is crucial to establish a learning climate in which the supervisor guides the supervised. Clinical supervisors might have numerous barriers and motivations. Our study aimed to explore the clinical supervision practices among general practitioners and to describe their motivations, barriers, and needs. A qualitative study was conducted using purposive sampling which is a non-probabilistic sampling method. The population was the general practitioners who were working at the primary health care centers either in the public or the private sectors (N=16). Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted by two authors, using an interview guide. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded. A thematic content analysis was done manually based on an inductive approach. Sixteen general practitioners participated. Three main themes emerged from the study: 1) General practitioners' practices in clinical supervision, 2) the enablers to adequate clinical supervision in general practice, and 3) the general practitioners' fundamental barriers and needs in clinical supervision. Despite their lack of clinical supervision training, they could describe the different clinical supervision steps without giving their exact names. We found that their teaching skills must be reinforced. General practitioners were mainly motivated by personal and professional interests as well as moral obligations. Numerous barriers and needs were identified at the organizational, relational, and financial levels. The principles barriers and needs were the lack of clinical supervision training, lack of equipment, and remuneration. The current study highlighted the motivations and challenges of general practitioners concerning clinical supervision. These results are helpful for all responsible institutions involved in clinical supervision and upcoming programs in Morocco.