BackgroundThe current challenges facing healthcare systems, in relation to the shortage of health professionals, necessitates mangers and leaders to learn from different leadership styles and staff empowerment strategies, so as to create a work environment that encourages nursing staff commitment to patients and their organization. This study intends to measure the effects of nurses’ overall perception of the leadership style of their managers, and psychological empowerment on their organizational commitment in acute care units, in National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia.MethodsThis was a cross-sectional survey, where the data was obtained from nurses at King Abdulaziz Medical City. Hard copy questionnaires were distributed to 350 randomly selected nurses. Three hundred and thirty two (332) were completed, representing a response rate of 95 %. Three validated survey instruments were used to obtain the data: (1) The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), formulated by Bass and Avolio (1997), (2) The Psychological Empowerment Scale developed by Spreitzer (1995) and (3) The Three-Component Model of Employee Commitment developed by Meyer and Allen (1997). A theoretical model that conceptually links leadership, empowerment, and organizational commitment was used. The SPSS program version 19 was employed to perform descriptive and inferential statistics including correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis.ResultsOverall most nurses perceived their immediate nursing managers as not displaying the ideal level of transformational leadership (TFL) behaviors. Nurses’ commitment appeared to be negatively correlated with TFL style and perceived psychological empowerment. However, commitment was positively correlated with the Transactional Leadership (TAL) style. Analysis, also, showed that commitment is significantly associated with the nurse’s nationality by region: North American (P = 0.001) and Arab (p = 0.027). The other important predictors of commitment include TAL (P = 0.027), Laissez-faire Leadership (LFL (P = 0.012), and autonomy (P = 0.016). The linear combination of these predictors explained 20 % of the variability of the nurses’ commitment.ConclusionThe study findings suggest that leadership styles and employee empowerment could play an instrumental role in promoting organizational commitment of nurses working in acute health care settings, at least in the Saudi Arabian context.

ObjectivesWe assessed job satisfaction, work commitment and intention to leave among pharmacists working in different healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia.DesignThis was a cross-sectional study utilising a previously validated questionnaire.SettingWe surveyed the workforce at different healthcare settings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.ParticipantsThe participants were pharmacists licensed by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties.Outcome measuresWe examined job satisfaction, work commitment and intention to leave.ResultsIn total, 325 out of 515 pharmacists completed the questionnaire, yielding a response rate of 63%. Over half of them were women (57.8%), 78.2% were Saudi Arabian nationals and 61.8% were married. The majority (88.1%) worked between 36 and 44 hours per week; 96.6% were full-time employees, and 63.4% were government employees working in public hospitals or primary healthcare centres. Although most of the pharmacists were satisfied (satisfied and slightly satisfied) with their current job (39.1% and 24.6%, respectively), about two-thirds (61.9%) had the intention to leave. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the most important predictors of pharmacists’ intentions to leave were related to job satisfaction and work commitment (OR=0.923; 95% CI 0.899 to 0.947; p<0.001 and OR=1.044; 95% CI 1.014 to 1.08; p=0.004, respectively), whereas respondents’ demographic characteristics had no effect.ConclusionsAlthough the pharmacists surveyed were satisfied and committed to their current job, they had the intention to leave. Further research is recommended to clarify why pharmacists in Saudi Arabia have the intention to leave their pharmacy practice job.

BackgroundWorkplace bullying (WPB) is a physical or emotional harm that may negatively affect healthcare services. The aim of this study was to determine to what extent healthcare practitioners in Saudi Arabia worry about WPB and whether it affects the quality of care and patient safety from their perception.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018. An online survey was distributed among all practitioners at a multi-regional healthcare facility. A previously validated tool was sourced from an integrative literature review by Houck and Colbert. Responses to 15 themes were rated on a 5-point Likert scale, converted to percentage mean scores (PMS) and compared across participants’ characteristics using bivariate and regression analyses.ResultsA total of 1074/1350 (79.5%) completed the questionnaire. The overall median [interquartile range] score of worrying about WPB was 81.7 [35.0]. Participants were mainly worried about the effect of WPB on their stress, work performance, and communication between staff members. A significant negative relationship developed between the quality of care and worrying about WPB, P < 0.001. More educated practitioners were 1.7 times more likely to be worried about WPB compared with their counter group, adj.P = 0.034. Junior practitioners were 1.6 times more likely to be worried about WPB, adj.P = 0.017. The group who has not been trained in handling WPB (1.7 times), and those who had been exposed to WPB (2.2 times) were both more likely to be worried about WPB compared with their counter groups, adj.P = 0.026 and adj.P < 0.001 respectively.ConclusionsMost healthcare practitioners worry about WPB, especially its negative impact on the quality of care and patient safety. A greater proportion of practitioners with higher levels of education and their less experienced counterparts were more worried about WPB. Previous exposure to a WPB incident amplifies the practitioners’ worry, but being trained on how to counteract bullying incidents makes them less likely to be worried.