Background The Saudi healthcare system is mainly staffed by foreign doctors who constitute about 73% of the total medical workforce. But, the high rate of turnover among these foreigners had deposited an additional unbearable cost and threatens the stability of the provided healthcare services in the country. Objectives This study was conducted to explore the professional and personal challenges that were experienced by foreign medical doctors while working in one of the major governmental tertiary-care hospitals in Riyadh city. The study also seeks to explore the factors that could influence or motivate their retention. Methods A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews was conducted on January 2018. A total of 16 foreign doctors were recruited purposefully using a maximum variation sampling strategy. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis technique. Results Three primary themes have been emerged based on the data analysis: (1) Work-related challenges such as; communication and discrimination challenges. (2) Living-related challenges such as; supportive services and restricted movement challenges. (3) Factor motivating retention such as providing good children education, offering flexible traveling regulations, and providing professional development opportunities. Conclusions The findings of this study have indicated that there are more important motivators than money for improving the retention of foreign doctors in the country. Several policy actions have been recommended to maintain their essential role. For example; implementing an ethical code to protect them from receiving deceptive hiring information, developing a specialized pocket dictionary to overcome language barriers, embracing "workforce diversity management" techniques to minimize discrimination at institutional level, and finally it is also recommended to include the foreign doctors' family needs and other living related challenges in any future retention strategies.
Although informal caregiving is a vital element in the process of supporting individuals with dependency, it is unrecognised most of the time, particularly by caregivers themselves. In Saudi Arabia, little attention has been devoted to informal caregivers; therefore, scarce coverage of this topic is obvious within the literature. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried to explore informal caregiving within Saudi society by (i) describing informal caregivers and their care recipients and (ii) measuring the scope of care and enabling arrangements in the lives of informal caregivers. Numerical measures of frequency distribution were used to describe the participants and the correlate of demography among 341 female primary caregivers of the elderly (40%), individuals with disabilities (10%) or/and children aged five or younger (51%). Inferential statistics were used to test for significant associations among study variables. The majority of the participants were married with children and were middle-aged. However, the majority of care recipients were living with their caregivers; in addition, they were primarily females cared for by a mother or, less often, by a daughter (in-law). Enabling arrangements were on a moderate level, mainly in healthcare access, financial resources and family support, with lower signs detected in the quality of sleep indicator. These arrangements were significantly associated with caregiver age, education, career status and source of assistance. In conclusion, the statistics revealed by this survey indicated certain challenges that have been encountered by informal caregivers, primarily involving financial and social support. More coverage within the formal system of childcare must be provided to facilitate healthier childhoods. The long-term needs of individuals with dependency must be considered in the planning process of healthcare services, as well, remembering the needs and expectations of informal caregivers.
Intrauterine growth restriction was defined as occurring if birth weight of the newborn is below 10 percentile for gestational age. We investigated its maternal determinants in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by comparing 76 cases to 76 controls to aid in early detection, diagnosis and proper prevention. A history of stillbirth, less than three years interpregnancy intervals, experiencing preeclampsia during pregnancy besides gaining less than nine kilograms during term pregnancy would signal a risk of having intrauterine growth restriction babies. Mothers living in rural areas as well as smokers along with those above 34 years old were associated with the same risk.
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