Saudi community perception of nursing as a profession

15^th Euro Nursing & Medicare Summit

October 17-19, 2016 Rome, Italy

Hala Saied

King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers, and the nursing shortage is a global concern. Due to this shortage, Saudi Arabia depends heavily on expatriate nurses from different countries. How the Saudi community perceives nursing as a profession will affect the nursing recruitment and retention. The aim of this study was to explore the Saudi community perception regarding nursing. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect data from a convenience sample of 500 male and female Saudi participants. Two tools were developed by the investigator to collect the data: Demographic characteristics questionnaire and the perception toward nursing questionnaire. The questionnaires were carefully constructed and piloted with 20 participants, non-parametric test has been used to analyze the 29 item Likert scale that measure the strength of the participants agreement which was used with one for strongly disagree and 5 for strongly agree. Most of the participants (58%) were 20 to 40 years old. Slightly more than half of them (50.2%) had a Bachelor degree and 60.4% had a family member or a friend working as a nurse. Overall, there was a positive perception about nursing among the majority of the participants. They perceive nursing as a human, respected profession but it is not appreciated by the society. More than half of the participants believed that Saudi nurses are better than foreign nurses and only 24% of the respondents think that nursing conflict with the customs and traditions of the Saudi society. However, this positive perception of the participants was not transmitted into a desire to join nursing. Improving nursing professions social position, prestige, working condition and salaries might encourage more applicants and young generations to enter the nursing profession.

Biography :

Hala Saied has completed her PhD from Case Western Reserve University, USA. She is working as an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Research Unit at the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Saudi Arabia.

Email: saiedh@ksau-hs.edu.sa