Patient Perspective in Saudi Arabia: What Qualities Make a Good and Competent Psychiatrist?

Introduction The good qualities of a psychiatrist can vary when asking a psychiatrist, a resident, a student, or even a patient. The patient's perspective, however, is of utmost importance and can be extremely unique. Our study aims to visualize and analyze the perspective of outpatients of the psychiatric department at King Fahad Hospital University on what qualities make a good and competent psychiatrist. As psychiatric medicine depends a lot on the psychological aspect, it yields high importance on studying how patients perceive and see their doctors in different regions of the world. For this reason, we conducted our study in Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Materials and methods A self-structured questionnaire named "What Qualities Make a Good and Competent Psychiatrist?" was developed and used to achieve the study objectives. It encompasses six sections: patients' personal data and demographics, patients' medical data, psychiatrists' personal traits, knowledge domain, social domain, and clinical setting domain. Results After data collection and analysis, our results showed the following. Patients did not have a generalized preference for personal traits or demographics; however, they preferred Saudi and Arabic-speaking physicians among others. Patients preferred their psychiatrists to be up to date with current research. The score per item is the lowest in the clinical domain, indicating that for the respondents, the clinical domain is the most important trait of a psychiatrist. Of the patients, 66.8% reported that appropriate grooming and clothing were crucial for a psychiatrist. Empathy and proper communication were also very important from the patients' points of view. Social and knowledge domains are also of extreme importance in our region. Discussion In our study, there seems to be no preference toward a psychiatrist's demographic traits with the exception of a Saudi nationality and being an Arabic speaker. The traits explored in this study are categorized into three domains: clinical setting domain, knowledge domain, and social domain. Of the three domains mentioned, the clinical setting domain was deemed the most important, followed by the social and knowledge domains. In a study conducted in Singapore, the social characteristics of the psychiatrist, which represented care and sympathy, were the main concern of patients. A study conducted in the UK showed that the participants were less concerned with the organizational social aspects of the medical processes than the clinical management components. Although the overall requirement for a knowledgeable, skilled, and socially competent psychiatrist and a proper clinical setting is sought by most psychiatric patients in different cultures and countries, there are also significant differences in the priorities of such characteristics. This emphasizes how every region has its standards for this occupation. Conclusion The results of this study suggest a variety of patients' and guardians' perspectives in different cultures with the clinical setting being an integral part of the psychiatrist's practice in Al-Khobar, KSA. The results showed that the clinical setting domain was the most critical domain, followed by social and knowledge domains. To improve patient experience and satisfaction, certain actions should be taken into consideration in our region.