Perception of supervisors of their role in primary health care programmes in Saudi Arabia

Thistudy was conducted to explore the perception supervisors had of their role in primary health care programmes. A self-administered postal questionnaire was used and a response was received from 135 out of 159 supervisors. The survey showed that supervisors had a reasonable understanding of the functions of supervision and they generally face the same difficulties. Supervisors spent most of their time solving technical problems and conducting field visits. The majority believed that they had reasonable status and enough support from the higher authorities. However, there is still a great need for formal training of supervisors. This should be incorporated into the quality assurance programme that has recently been introduced