Challenges and Solutions for Nursing Staff Shortage in Saudi Arabia

This essay discusses the shortage of nursing staff in emergency rooms in Saudi Arabia and its impact on healthcare. It highlights the factors contributing to the shortage, such as societal perceptions, long working hours, and lack of proper funding. The essay also suggests strategies to address the issue, including improving education and training, enhancing working conditions, and providing support systems for nurses.

Running Head : NURSING
Nursing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The staffs in the emergency rooms that includes the nurses, the midwives and other
personnel of health care constitue more than 55% of the labor force of a country (Aboshaiqah
2016). The staffs working in the emergency rooms constitute the nucleaus of the helath care
system. These staffs represent the most important and powerful force for advocating the
alteration for meeting the requirements of the health for all. The staffs in the emergency room
plays a very essential role in the delivering of the care related to health furthermore
advocating the promotion of the health, keeping an eye on the wellbeing and the prevention
of the illness, injury, contagious diseases in the emegncy room and provide support to the
patients. Despite of being one of the largest provider and emergency group, the organizations
in the domain of health care has been experiencing a severe shortage of the qualified and
skilled staffs for the duties and the responsibilities in the emergency room (Abumayyaleh et
al. 2016). The essay highlight the context of the country of Saudi Arabia where the shortage
of the staffs in the emergency room has been majorly attributed towards a various level of
factors that furthermore includes rigorous demand for the health care for the advancements
of the technology in the medical field, increased growth of the population, the increased rate
of the expectancy of life and accelerating rate of the critically ill patients. The thesis
statement of the essay argues with the fact how the country of Saudi Arabia lacks the
shortage of the staffs in the emergency room together with the effects of the lack to the health
rate of the individuals residing in the country. The essay furthermore illustrates the need for
the increasing rate of the staff in the country.
The issue
The western countries of the world re experiencing the shortage of the employees for
the emergency room that is furthermore affecting the supply of the expertise nurses. The

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health care systems in the country had been facing the growing number of challenges in the
context of the health needs (Al Amri et al. 2017). Mostly noted as the profession and the
career for the women, in the society of the Saudi Arabia, the profession and the employment
of the emergency room regarding the health care context had been facing issues and
challenges due to the perception of the society, the atavism tradition and the reluctancy of the
health care givers of the emergency room to continue thor employment due to the long
working hours, lack of proper funding, opportunities and suffocated work environment.
Although mosty noted as the global problem, the shortage and the lack of the
employees in the emergency room appears to be the most significant issue in the Saudi
Arabia. The exposure towards the issues and the problems is generally repeatable for the
problems regarding the working environment or due to the personal issues (Al Malki,
Endacott and Innes 2018). The society and the social relation in the eastern country like
Saudi Arabia ususlly tends to impact on the health practitioners like the nurses, the doctors
and the emergency room care givers due to the open and the hectic working environment,
long and stranous work hours in the closed society of Saudi Arabia.
Current status of the issue
Saudi Arabia like some of the other countries in the globe has been facing some of the
major challenges and issues related to the shortage of the empoyees or staffs in the
emergency room. As per eth World Health Orgaanization (WHO) there exist only 40-45
health care giver for every 10,000 in the population in Saudi Arabia. According to the report
by Alboliteeh, Magarey and Wiechula (2017) there had been a chronic shortage of the health
care givers of about 30-35% that furthermore included heavy migration of the nurses in the
year 2010 (Asiri et al. 2016). There has been growing number of evidences regarding the
shortage of the employees of the emergency room towards the factors related to social and

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cultural perspectives that highlights the negative images and the low ststus of the profession
of the stffs in the emergency rom of health care institutes. Factors such as the image in the
community, disagreement of the family, the values related to the communinal and the cultural
context, the long working hours of the staffs, mixing with the staffs belonging to the opposite
gender and the anxiety regarding not being the marriageable prospect in the society are some
of the major factors in the country of the Saudi Arabia regarding the lack or the shortage of
the health care staffs in the emergency room.
As per the current challnges faced by the country and the health care sector of Saudi
Arabia, the turover rate for the employees of the emergency room is one of the major
challenges that has been effecting the profitability , the performance and mostly the wellbeing
of the individual of the country (Alghamdi and Urden 2016). Ths turover rate is increasingly
becoming worse and due to the low number of employees at the emergency rooms, the
existing employees have to serve long working hours in pathetic workplace conditions and
thus resulting in zero employment satisfaction.
Some of the major issues in the current platform of Saudi Arabia includes the lack of
interst of many students towards pursuing the diploma and the course by MOH for pursuing
the profession of nursing, the ignorance and the lack of the recognition of the profession of
nursing as a job and prohibition from the family for the females (Alharbi, McKenna and
Whittall 2019). Furthermore due to the long and the stranious working condition,lack of
proper training, development in the education and sunspecialities, most of the nurses in the
current practices of the health care organization tend to shift to other countries after gaining
their share of experinces. Thus the current structure and the background of the turnover rate
of the employees of the emergency rooms in the health care field in the country of Saudi
Arabia is one of the critical factor that needs to be considered.

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Discussion and analysis
The shortage of the health care professionals is a worldwide challenge or problem
specifically in Saudi Arabia. As per the reports by Alharthy et al. (2017) it has been estimated
that there will be more that 1.5 milLion deficit of the registered employees working in the
emergency rooms of the health care centers of the coutry by the year 2020. This chronic
shortage of the nurses and the health care professionals accompanied by the high rate of
turnover rates in the coury iss affecting the health care facilities compromising only 29.1% of
the total workforce in the health care centres of the country. As per the research by Almajwal
(2016) majority of the expertise professionals in the emergency rooms of the health care
sector of the country use the sector and the facilities as the means for the temporary occasions
for the obtaining of the experiences and proper training which they used to move towards
some of the essential marketable skills in the aim of pursuing in the developed countries
including the USA , Canada, The United Kingdom and Australia (Khalifa and Zabani 2016).
As per the above stated factors highlighting the current status of the challnges faced by the
government of the country, the shortage of the health care givers are sme of the major issues
sue the factors targeting the educational, social and individual systems. The annual supply of
the graduates of the Saudi has been very less towards meeting the demands regarding the
expanded services of the health care services (Al-Otaibi, Moawed and Al-Harbi 2018). The
high turover rates among the nurse and the health care givers tends to contribute some of the
major administrative issues and further interruption of the plans of the organization that
results in poor delivery of the services. These issues tends to constiture some of the serioud
challenges towards the effectiveness and the efficiency of the some of the targeted systems of
the delivery of the health cares.

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1 9 90 - 1 99 5 1 9 95 - 2 00 0 2 0 00 - 2 01 0 2 0 10 - 2 01 8
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
3.3
2.3
2.8
1.6
Nurses
Nurses
Figure: The existence of the rate of the nurses in the county of Saudi Arabia
Source: (Al-Qahtani et al. 2017)
The figure above illustrate the rate of the engagement and the existing force f the
helath care workers in the emergency rooms in the country of Saudi Arabia within the tme
frame from 1990 to 2018. The chart highlight the diminishing graph of the rate of the
employment and the existence of the nurse which are manifested and influenced by high
turnover rates and personal issues that forces the employees to leave the workforce and searc
forother career oppertunites. Furthermore factors and challenges including long working
hours and unhealthy working environment are some of the major factors contributing to the
diminishing rate of the work force distribution of the health care professionls in the Saud
Arabia.
Nursing has always been traditoionally an unacceptable option of the career for the
Saudi nationals.

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Challenges
Education related challenges
One of the major challenges regarding the growing ate of the issue of the decreased
staff in the emergency roo in Saudi Arabia is the challenge in the education and theincreased
demand for the education and the service trainings related to nursing. According to the
research analysis by the pattern of the education of the provision of the diploma and
associated degrees in the nursing education has initiated in some of the major restriction of
the process of the nursing profession. Alqahtani, Jones and Holroyd (2016) in his study
argues that the health care professionals including the degree of nursing tends to have high
level of professionalism that those having associated degrees and the degreeof nursing has
been long considered as the social return for the educational investment. The nursing
education in the Saudi Arabia has long been either diploma or the associated degrees offered
by the ministry of Health and the higher education which has raise to the concern and the
challenges regarding the education purpose (Pathan et al. 2017). The hospital bed education
furthermore posses as one of the essential factors for the health care givers of the
organization that contributes to the motivation, retention or satisfaction to hold on to the job.
The challenges in the system
Poor working condition tops the list of the challenges in the system. Attributed to
some of the factors related to the work some of the major issues in the profession are the long
work hours, the gender mixing and the rotational shift which targets the staffs employed for
the emergency rooms in the health care units as an socially unacceptable choice of the
occupation (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl and Maude 2016). Further compounded by low pay
structures, lack of proper finance and trainings, increasing level of work loads and the lack of
the recognition and appreciations, the employees tend to grow regret, dissapointment,

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frustration that adversely imapcts on the level of the satisfaction and their motives of
retention. Furthermore lack of proper transportation services and reliable public transports,
lack of facilities for the working mothers for their child care facilities and heavy pressure
from the families are some of the major factors that are contributing to high turnover rates
and low rate of enrolment for the nursing profession.
Furthermore the turnover rates of the nurses creates the shortage of the staffing
furthermore increasing the demands of the emergency room employees (Al-Takroni et al.
2018). The vicious cycle of the constant increase in the turnover rate of the employees and
he health care professionals are furthermore heading to accident rates and high levels of
absenteeism among the remaining nurse groups (Wazqar et al. 2017). The shortage of the
staffs followed by the turnover rates are generally linked with significant decrease in the
quality of the care of the patient and furthermore increase in the hospital aacquired illness for
the patient.
The social challenges
The social rejection of nursing followed by the lack of proper communication and the
challenges in the individual level serves as some of the essential factor contributing to the
social challenges (Al‐Yami, Galdas and Watson 2018). The lack of the awareness on the
profession of nursing that are furthermore coupled with the preferences for other academic
fields followed by the lack of proper guidance and family support illustrates the lack of the
interest in the nursing as the choice of the occupation.
Recommended startegies for improvement

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Some of the recommended stratgeis for the improvement of the practses of the health
care professionals and the high turnover rates of the employees in the emergency rooms on
the health care sector of Saudi Arabia includes thee following.
It is important to examine the effect of the support systems like the charecteristics of
the organization, the policies related to the nursing and the motivation and the encouragement
from the family to the rate of joining of the health care profession by students in the country.
The government of the country should take some of the effective steps to reduce the
work related stress of the employees already engaged and initiate in proper funding and
facilities to the employees engaged in the emergency room services
The health care organization should furthermore introduce the provision of bonus,
extra work time benefits, workplace appraisals and gifts for the working mothers so that they
can balance both their work and their home
The health care orgnizations in the country should effectively follow the national
regulations and the policies related to the rights of the nurses, the doctors and other health
care professions and implement the same (AlYami and Watson 2014).
The government shoud introduce the degree programme for the nursing educator
accompanied by the application of the electronic training and the performance file
mechanisms so that mre are more students rae attracted towards joining the nursing force.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded that the status of the nursing in the country of Saudi Arabia
should be enhanced for making in a good and worthwhile career. The education sector of the
country should consider the implementation and the enforcement of the degree program of
the nursing education together with the provision of he additional support for encouraging the

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profession and the students to join it. The essay highlighted the context of the country of
Saudi Arabia where the shortage of the staffs in the emergency toom has been majorly
attributed towards a various level of factors that furthermore includes rigorous demand for
the health care for the advanceents of the technology in the medical fieled, increased growth
of the population, the increased rate of the expectancy of life and accelerating rate of the
critically ill patients. With the current ongoing state of the turnover rates of the health
profession in Saudi Arabia , the media should also engage towards the hekp of the promotion
of the positive image of the profession of the nursing and making the society aware regarding
the importance of the profession. Since the health care professionals and the nurses are are
eligible to work with the local patients due to the ease of customs, anguage and culture, ut is
thus important for the government of the country to implemented sme of the recommended
strategies to resolve the challenges.

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