Foreign doctors in Norwegian psychiatry – is there a need for a mentoring scheme?

In line with other Western countries, the number of foreign doctors in Norway has greatly increased in recent years. Inadequate language skills and cultural differences may give rise to challenges. The objective of this study was to investigate the views of Norwegian specialty registrars in psychiatry with regard to a mentoring scheme for foreign doctors and how such a support scheme ought to be designed.

Data were collected in focus-group interviews with specialty registrars in psychiatry. Altogether 24 Norwegian and 16 foreign doctors participated in a total of five focus groups. Thematic analysis was used as methodology.

One consistent finding pertained to the differing views on the need for a mentoring scheme among the Norwegian and foreign doctors respectively. The foreign doctors perceived few problems in terms of language and culture, while their Norwegian colleagues had occasionally experienced considerable problems in this respect. Moreover, obstacles in terms of attitude to a mentoring scheme were revealed among the foreign doctors, as well as differing opinions regarding the organisation of such a scheme, especially in terms of its voluntariness and having peers as mentors (horizontal organisation) versus having superiors as mentors (vertical organisation).

The differences in attitude to a mentoring scheme are partly caused by perception of the problem's extent and partly by varying norms and values among foreign and Norwegian doctors respectively. We propose that various forms of mentoring scheme be tested in a pilot project, in which the foreign doctors are actively involved.