An analysis of the challenges in recruiting clinical teachers in Iranian medical universities: A qualitative analysis

Employing appropriate and deserving staff is goal of human resource management (HRM). A group of staff at medical science universities are clinical teachers. Considering the position and importance of these peoples, this study addresses the challenges of recruiting clinical teachers.

This is a qualitative study of the conventional content analysis done in Isfahan medical university in 2018. The participants were selected through intensity sampling of purposive sampling method, and data were obtained through semi‑structured interviews conducted to survey 23 experts and clinical faculty members concerning the challenges involved in employing clinical teachers. Data were analyzed using conventional content analysis method and OneNote 2013.

Two main categories and ten subcategories were classified as follows: HRM inadequacy in educational departments with six subscales such as indefiniteness of the workforce status for HR managers, reluctance of educational departments to increase human resources, nonproportionality of the teacher–student ratio, recruitment of faculty based on the needs in the treatment sector, weakness of the infrastructure to use nonfaculty teachers, and reduced public interest in employment as a faculty and weakness of the selection process with four subscales based on data analysis such as undesirable manner of selection, recruitment based on the score given by the national board of medical examiners, purpose‑based calls to recruit predefined individuals, and personal and emotional issues, rather than managerial standards, governing cooperation with teachers.

Recruitment process is part of HRM tasks. Employment system in a medical sciences university must be considered to improve the clinical faculty recruitment. HRM inadequacy in educational departments and weakness of the selection process are challenges that affect the employment system. According to these findings, it is necessary to review the regulations and tasks of HRM in medical sciences universities.