Nursing in the United Arab Emirates: an historical background

To gain a better understanding of some of the factors that may be contributing to the shortage of national nurses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Approximately 3% of the UAE nursing workforce are currently nationals, which explains the UAE dependency on transient expatriate nurses. Even though Emirati women have been recently empowered to join the national workforce, not many have joined the nursing profession. Several factors may be contributing, in varying degrees, to this predicament.

The socio-economic factors as well as the cultural and religious customs that have shaped the country and its people are examined. Hence, the historical background to the establishment of the UAE, women in Islam, the first nurse in Islam, the development of nursing in the UAE and the Emirates Nursing Association are considered.

Factors contributing to the limited number of UAE nationals in the nursing profession include, but are not limited to: the low status of nursing in the UAE; the variations in basic nursing programmes in the country; the lack of Arabic educational resources; the affluent life style of UAE nationals as well as the strict cultural norms and religious values by which they live. As the need to nationalize the nursing workforce in the UAE is paramount, these issues and other perceived barriers from the perspective of Emirati nurses need to be explored and addressed.