7.3.2.2 Cultural challenges The study involved some cultural challenges. For example, being a female researcher interviewing male participants in a conservative culture such as SA, could have discouraged male patients from speaking freely and comfortably. For example, in accordance with cultural norms, Saudi male patients avoided eye contact with the researcher and sometimes preferred to provide concise responses. However, to overcome this limitation, the researcher used appropriate probing questions, started general conversations and referred to the patients using the names they preferred such as to develop rapport with them. Furthermore, to ease communication and gain “uncle.X” the male participants’ respect, the researcher wore a that is a face cover, which “Niqab” only reveals the eyes, when interviewing male participants, to avoid negative views, as in Saudi culture people tend to view women who show their faces critically. The researcher wore a which is a black, wide traditional clothing women wear when they “Abaya”, appear in public in SA, rather than a white lab coat which female professionals are allowed to wear at work places, to give patients a sense of belonging and help them to easily share their perceptions. Participants’ views on the study, as the researcher would be sharing the findings in the UK, may have limited the number of patient participants. On occasion patients were reluctant to reveal their responses, because of their concerns that a critical view about the quality of care would be shared with the Western world. Thus, they were protective about the reputation of the Saudi health care system and quality of care. For example, one patient who explicitly expressed his negative view about sharing information with from the UK followed each of the undeniable challenges in the cross-cultural “people”
7.3.2.2 Cultural challenges The study involved some cultural challenges. For example, being a female researcher interviewing male participants in a conservative culture such as SA, could have discouraged male patients from speaking freely and comfortably. For example, in accordance with cultural norms, Saudi male patients avoided eye contact with the researcher and sometimes preferred to provide concise responses. However, to overcome this limitation, the researcher used appropriate probing questions, started general conversations and referred to the patients using the names they preferred such as “uncle.X” to develop rapport with them. Furthermore, to ease communication and gain the male participants’ respect, the researcher wore a “Niqab” that is a face cover, which only reveals the eyes, when interviewing male participants, to avoid negative views, as in Saudi culture people tend to view women who show their faces critically. The researcher wore a “Abaya”, which is a black, wide traditional clothing women wear when they appear in public in SA, rather than a white lab coat which female professionals are allowed to wear at work places, to give patients a sense of belonging and help them to easily share their perceptions. Participants’ views on the study, as the researcher would be sharing the findings in the UK, may have limited the number of patient participants. On occasion patients were reluctant to reveal their responses, because of their concerns that a critical view about the quality of care would be shared with the Western world. Thus, they were protective about the reputation of the Saudi health care system and quality of care. For example, one patient who explicitly expressed his negative view about sharing information with “people” from the UK followed each of the undeniable challenges in the cross-cultural