The nursing profession in Saudi Arabia: an overview

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Workforce Studies
• Nursing Profession Analysis
• Saudi Arabian Healthcare System

Background:

• Saudi Arabia experiences a significant shortage of Saudi nurses, leading to high turnover rates.
• Expatriate nurses constitute a substantial portion of the healthcare workforce, with Saudi nationals comprising only 29.1% of all nurses.
• The proportion of Saudi nurses is particularly low in the private health sector, at just 4.1%.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a comprehensive overview of the nursing profession in Saudi Arabia.
• To examine the historical development, educational advancements, workforce demographics, and professional practices within Saudi nursing.
• To identify key challenges and areas for improvement in the Saudi nursing sector.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of published articles and reports.
• Searches conducted across multiple databases including Medline, CINAHL, and Google Scholar.
• Thematic analysis of extracted data to evaluate relevance and synthesize findings.

Main Results:

• The nursing workforce in Saudi Arabia is characterized by a low percentage of Saudi nationals.
• Significant disparities exist in the representation of Saudi nurses between public and private healthcare sectors.
• The study highlights the need for strategic interventions to address the nursing shortage and improve workforce composition.

Conclusions:

• Enhancing the status of the nursing profession is crucial to making it an attractive career choice in Saudi Arabia.
• Promoting a positive public image of nursing through media engagement is recommended.
• Revising nursing education duration, providing financial support, and offering intern year salaries are suggested to boost recruitment and retention.