Turnover among foreign nurses in Saudi Arabia

Globally, nursing turnover has become a contemporary concern that significantly influences the financial proficiency of healthcare systems. Not only costs, but healthcare accessibility and quality also reverberate the consequence of the phenomenon.

The study explores the factors that attribute to turnover among foreign registered nurses working in Saudi Arabia. A quantitative-based cross-sectional descriptive study design that uses survey data to make statistical inferences about foreign nurse turnover in Saudi Arabia, was conducted to ascertain factors influencing the termination of foreign nurses working with the Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals.

Factors influencing turnover were categorized into 9 dimensions, professional growth and development, leadership style, management, wage and benefits, workload, interpersonal relationship, housing facilities and services, hospital facilities and intent to stay and turn-over intention, of which the professional growth (4.1±0.7) and development had the highest mean agreement scores (4.0±1.1), whereas housing (2.3±1.3) and hospital facilities (2.1±1.0) showed the lowest mean scores.  Conclusions: Wage benefits and workload factors were found to be the most significant causes of expatriate nursing turnover, closely followed by inadequate housing and hospital facilities. Recommendations from nursing staff on how to improve retention were also noted.