Challenges Facing the Nursing Profession in Saudi Arabia: An Integrative Review

Abstract

There is a paucity of recent literature identifying the issues facing the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this integrative review is to highlight the ongoing challenges facing the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia despite attempts to make a difference and suggests recommendations for the future. Literature published from 2000 to 2020, inclusive, relevant for nursing challenges in Saudi Arabia was accessed and reviewed from multiple sources. In Saudi Arabia, inadequate numbers of Saudi nurses have prompted an increase in recruitment of expatriate nurses. This has created its own issues including, retention, lack of competency in English and Arabic, as well as Arabic cultural aspects, insufficient experience, and a high workload. The result is job dissatisfaction and increased attrition as these nurses prefer to move to more developed countries. For national nurses, the issues are the need to recruit more and retain these nurses. There are a range of cultural factors that contribute to these issues with national nurses. There is a need to improve the image of nursing to recruit more Saudi nurses as well as addressing issues in education and work environment. For expatriate nurses there is a need for a better recruitment processes, a thorough program of education to improve knowledge and skills to equip them to work and stay in Saudi. There is also a need for organizational changes to be made to increase the job satisfaction and retention of nurses generally. Healthcare in Saudi Arabia also needs leaders to efficiently manage the various issues associated with the nursing workforce challenges.

Leadership Style, Work Engagement and Organizational Commitment Among Nurses in Saudi Arabian Hospitals

“…Furthermore, work and living conditions for expatriate nurses in Saudi Arabia are considered to be poor, adding to that religious and cultural differences, and language barriers create complex working environment and social living conditions for them. 13 Therefore, many expatriate nurses initially come to Saudi Arabia to gain work experience, and they tend to move to developed countries in the west and Europe after acquiring enough skills and expertise. 14 Therefore, not only the barriers to the expatriates but also the job dissatisfaction and turnover are few other issues affecting the nursing sector in Saudi Arabia.…”

The Relationship Between Nurses' Quality of Work-Life on Organizational Loyalty and Job Performance in Saudi Arabian Hospitals: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Job satisfaction, autonomy of work, and resource adequacy reflected more strong correlations with task, contextual, and adaptive performance; and all types of commitment. As identified in the previous studies (12,14,15,26,38), job satisfaction, one of the important 'quality of work-life' subscale was identified to be significantly influencing job performance and organization loyalty. Thus, it can be analyzed and concluded that quality of work-life can moderately influence the organization loyalty and job performance of the nurses in Saudi Arabia, based on the hypothesis analysis.…”

“…Focusing on the expatriate nurses, several issues such as poor living and working conditions, cultural differences, communication problems, complex social living conditions are affecting their work-life in the country ( 12 ), as a result of which their satisfaction levels and loyalty are decreasing. For instance, it was identified that many expatriate nurses initially come to Saudi Arabia even though the working and living conditions are poor, only to gain enough work experience, so that they can later move to the developed countries such as the US and the UK, where they can experience better work-life conditions ( 13 ).…”

Emotional Exhaustion of Female Nursing Educators

“…during their mid-careers [29], hence, restarting their counting for years of service. Finally, under profile variable, our results suggest that having an administrative role predicted lower anxiety among female nursing faculty.…”