Implications of a Nursing Degree Policy Requirement for Qualified Nurses in Saudi Arabia - Case Study Example

Literature Review: Regardless of what nation or region is analyzed, standards and metrics for professionals invariably exist. The case of the nursing profession and healthcare in general, is no exception to this unspoken rule. Accordingly, the following discussion will seek to provide the reader with a more informed understanding with respect to the way in which standards and thresholds of practice have come to be exhibited within the field of nursing within Saudi Arabia. Although it might be tempting to understand that the Saudi model has somehow been impervious to the powers of globalization and internationalization of healthcare norms and standards, the following literature review will provide evidence to the contrary. Yet, rather than relying upon the literature review to explain the corresponding standards that the Saudi Arabian nursing profession exhibits, it should also be understood and appreciated that these norms are also partially born out of a domestic factors of culture, healthcare approach, and ethnicity that is unique to Saudi Arabia and the approach that has developed therein. It is the further hope of the literature review that such an overview and historical analysis will more accurately represent the ways in which both internal and external influences have helped to encourage, discourage, and otherwise craft the development of standards of care. Zakari et al. (2010) denote that educational standards have morphed and changed a great deal over the past several decades. Part of the reason for this has to do with the incessant drive that globalization has provided. Within such a drive, regions and nations seek to standardize educational expectation and requirements as a means of creating a broader and more differentiated workforce that is able to integrate with the needs of a dynamic and shifting labor market/economy. Although this dynamic has proven to be untrue in many different industries and labor markets, the level of standardized nation that exists within the healthcare industry throughout the globe is far more developed than many other sectors. The underlying reason for this has to do with the ongoing research and best practices that developed nations have put forward. As a means of implementing the standards and practices, it is absolutely integral for the educational system to set similar and universal standards for degree implementation as a means of ensuring that development alongside standards implemented throughout the world can take place locally/domestically. Whereas the standards that face other sectors of education are most certainly important, the authors point to the fact that the need to build a body of knowledge and provide for the diverse and global workforce of tomorrow creates an inherent demand that nursing students meet basic proficiency levels that are exhibited elsewhere throughout the globe. As such, this calls for graduate education, ongoing training, and standards to match Western Europe and/or the United States or other developed nations/regions. Likewise Almalki et al. (2011) indicate the standardization of policy surrounding nursing degree requirements as it came to be developed in the United States and Canada. Due to the geographic proximity and cultural affinity that these two nations shared, the nursing profession quickly came to realize that in order for the labor market to experience a potential benefit from cross training and similar curriculum it was necessary for policy to match with one another. By tracing the history of this development and analyzing the key factors of policy formation that came to be represented in both private and public institutions throughout Canada United States, the reader is presented with an informed discussion that details the manner through which such a process was carried out. Naturally, as can be noted, this particular analysis, performed by the authors in question, has a direct level of relevance with respect to seeking to understand the way in which policy and educational expectation for nursing students developed elsewhere throughout the world; specifically with regard to Saudi Arabia as is the interest of this researcher. From the information presented by Al-Mazrooa (2011), it is clear and apparent that the development of standards and policy that came to be evidenced within the United States and Canada was not the direct result of government intervention or demands for educational standards. Instead, the change that was evidenced within the United States was a direct result of the fact that the private marketplace encourage stakeholders to seek out a least common denominator and denote core standards that should be focused upon as a means of training a more effective and specifically useful nursing sector. As a means of delving into the history of the nursing profession and the means by which change has been exhibited within the past, Al-Turki et al. (2010) denote the fact that up until the latter half of the 20th century no graduate or postgraduate experience was required in order to become a nurse. Although educational standards still existed, the fragmented nature of these standards created a situation by which individual states and regions, not to mention different universities and colleges/Tech schools, all had different standards that caused great difficulty within the medical community. Whereas it is true that qualified and passionate individuals still existed within this particular period of time, the level and extent to which growth and further understanding within the industry could be exhibited was hampered due to the fact that the multitude of standards created an uneven labor force. The distribution of the labor force and the non-standardized impact that this had on the nursing profession is ultimately what the authors point to as the impetus for the drive to standardize nursing education and what caused other nations to follow suit (Alhamdin, 2004). Finally, the authors note that even though it was the private market that determined the shift that was seen within the United States and Canada, the lessons that were learned from this was translated to other developing nations as their governments enacted standards and sought to rapidly gain parity with developed nations by effecting the changes that the United States and Canada had experienced over decades within only a few short years. Delving a bit deeper into the issue, research by Mebrouk (2008) indicates that the root goal an underlying desire within Saudi Arabia, specifically the Ministry of Health, is to effect a situation in which Saudi Arabia nursing curriculum, standards, and best practices very nearly match those that are exhibited within Western Europe and the United States. Although this might encourage one to believe that the Saudi model of nursing policy and educational standards focuses its core goal upon matching/copying Western European or North American standards, the Ministry of health, as well as other responsible entities, are uniquely interested in specifying and defining the approach that Saudi Arabia will take to health care within the coming years. As such, stakeholders within the system seek to implement standards that will be beneficial to the issues and interpretation of healthcare provision that are currently deemed to be the most representative of future expectations within the Saudi Arabia population. Ultimately, the article in question denotes the fact that a synthesis between Western/European standards and a unique Saudi Arabia model is ultimately what is helping to craft policy that is exhibited throughout the entire healthcare sphere, specifically the nursing educational sphere, within Saudi Arabia and surrounding regions for that matter (Abularub & Alghamdi, 2012). Regardless of the information and studies that have been presented previously, it is worthy to mention the fact that even though a great deal of standardized nation and cross cultural similarity has come to be exhibited within the healthcare sphere over the past several decades, unique societal and cultural differences still provide for a situation in which lasting difference between component nursing policies and/or standards continue to be exhibited. Suliman et al. (2009) denotes that even though globalization has a powerful impact with regards to improving cultural understanding and effecting standards in a way that might not be encouraged within another paradigm, the unique differentials that exist within cultures are not always something that should be minimized. For instance, by pointing to the fact that a unique system of education and cultural arts to education can provide stakeholders within the medical community unique inference with respect to regional healthcare issues, the article points to the fact that nations would do well to consider the fact that has standards are engaged, unique consideration the way in which medical knowledge and understanding is replicated within a specific region should still command a level of merit and consideration. Within such an understanding, the reader is encouraged to realize that as standards and globalization encourage unique policy shifts within institutions and government structures, the need and requirement to consider the dynamics of a particular region and the unique physical, emotional, spiritual, and cultural needs that a specific population might require is nonetheless still relevant. One particular’s piece of scholarship that sought to analyze the actual added value that such policies of standardization and change have helped to affect within Saudi Arabia is that of Omer (2012). Within this particular research, the authors sought to analyze the case of Saudi Arabia as compared to the case of other Middle Eastern nations and African countries. What was determined was that the added value, at least in the case in Saudi Arabia, was with respect to the interchangeable nature that the medical profession came to experience (Aldossary et al., 2008). As policies came to be implemented and standards came to be affected, the result that was immediately denoted was one in which the Saudi Arabia medical profession benefited from the correspondence that it began to share with other developed nations. In short, the article in question revealed the fact that shortly after standards were established and medical professionals within Saudi Arabia began to mirror their counterparts in other nations around the globe, the direct and tangential benefit that was experience was not only medical community that was more in line with best practices elsewhere throughout the globe; but one that was more effectively able to integrate with the immediate needs of the stakeholders within Saudi Arabia in society and utilize best practices and approaches that were exhibited elsewhere throughout the world within the Saudi Arabian model. As a means of pointing to statistical and verifiable data to support this, the study indicates that the survival rate for cancer, the prevention rate for infectious disease, and the stroke recovery ratio all drastically improved not long after these standards and policies were affected within Saudi Arabia. Although correlation does not equal causation, the authors of the article indicate that the preponderance of improvements that are exhibited within the few brief months and years after the changes were affected within Saudi Arabia helped to indicate the fact that a singular cause is likely to have contributed to this (Aldossary et al., 2012). By way in other factors and considering other potential causal mechanisms, the authors determine the fact that the most likely scenario is one in which changes in the medical community; specifically that of nursing education and the standards associated with it, are the most likely determinant for the way in which these changes were manifested. Furthermore, one of the impacts that many scholars have noted with respect to nursing policy and guidelines established within Saudi Arabia is somewhat endogenous. What is meant by this has to do with the fact that many of the policymakers and experts that are now crafting policy within Saudi Arabia are in fact stakeholders that had previously worked within the field of nursing and have intimate knowledge of some of the shortcomings and drawbacks that the Saudi Arabian model had indicated previously throughout its history. This is a highly effective scenario; due to the fact that stakeholders within the policy formulation sector are able to accurately denote what changes should be made as a function of effecting a more useful and powerful set of standards and policies that will benefit the stakeholders within the nursing community as well as the stakeholders within broader society at the same time. One of the unique issues that has been recorded by several analysts, necessitating its inclusion within this literature review, has to do with the overall level of government market control exists within the Saudi Arabia healthcare industry. Due to the fact that the Saudi Arabia model of healthcare provision is state-funded and requires little if any monetary contributions from the individuals that avail themselves from it, the overall involvement that the government has in crafting policies and requirements that help to define the nursing profession within Saudi Arabia are profound. Whereas this level of control has allowed for the development of the Ministry of health and other aspects of the Saudi model in a beneficial way, the net drawback that it exhibits, according to Miller-Rosser et al. (2006), is that it necessarily constricts the overall number of individuals that are willing to pursue an education and obtain certifications within the nursing profession. Ultimately, the rapid and sustained changes with respect to the qualifications and requirements that are necessitated within this particular career path have increased so much over the past several years that individuals are no longer as interested in pursuing nursing as a career path as they might have been previously. What this has affected is a situation in which government control has actually decreased the overall incentive for individuals to engage in nursing and pursue a career within the healthcare industry. This is especially troubling; especially due to the fact that a nursing profession, not to mention their profession, is due to expand by an order of magnitude over the next several decades. As the current demographic continues to age, analysts expect that the overall number of engaging an elderly within society, and by extension is individuals most likely to avail themselves of healthcare, will increase greatly. The application from all of this is concentric upon the fact that policymakers within the government should be mindful of the fact that remuneration for the nursing profession should match the increase in standards and policies that are now being implemented; and have been implemented over the past several decades. In such a manner, the incentivize nation structure to encourage people to continue to consider this as a viable career path will be exhibited; even as standards continue to increase and the overall level of training, education, ongoing education, and requirements for practice continue to increase. In such a manner, Aboul-Enein (2002) denotes the fact that further government involvement in the Ministry of health and policy setting standards should be engaged as a function of matching the market and improving upon the degree and extent to which incentive structures can be renegotiated within the Saudi model. This is of course not to say that the Saudi model of economics or healthcare provision is in any way entirely or completely government controlled. Instead, it merely denotes the fact that as the market continues to grow and expand and the policymaking structures and standards grow commensurately, changes must also be made with respect to the overall incentivize nation that can be provided to stakeholders that are potentially considering nursing is a future career. Bibliography Aboul-Enein, F 2002, Personal contemporary observations of nursing care in Saudi Arabia, International Journal Of Nursing Practice, 8, 4, pp. 228-230, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Alhamdan, A. A. (2004). Status of Saudi Saudi Arabian Nursing Standards. Asia Pacific Journal Of Clinical Nutrition, 13(4), 372-376. Abularub, R, & Alghamdi, M 2012, The impact of leadership styles on nurses satisfaction and intention to stay among Saudi nurses, Journal Of Nursing Management, 20, 5, pp. 668-678, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Aldossary, R, Vail, J, & Macfarlane, F 2012, Job satisfaction of nurses in a Saudi Arabian university teaching hospital: a cross-sectional study, International Nursing Review, 59, 3, pp. 424-430, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Aldossary, A, While, A, & Barriball, L 2008, Health care and nursing in Saudi Arabia, International Nursing Review, 55, 1, pp. 125-128, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Almalki, M, FitzGerald, G, & Clark, M 2011, The nursing profession in Saudi Arabia: an overview, International Nursing Review, 58, 3, pp. 304-311, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Al-Mazrooa, AA 2011, Evolving Nurses into Home Health Care Practice, Home Health Care Management & Practice, 23, 2, pp. 118-124, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Al-Turki, H, Al-Turki, R, Al-Dardas, H, Al-Gazal, M, Al-Maghrabi, G, Al-Enizi, N, & Ghareeb, B 2010, Standards and Multinational Care, Annals Of African Medicine, 9, 4, pp. 226-229, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Mebrouk, J 2008, Perception of nursing care: Views of Saudi Arabian female nurses, Contemporary Nurse: A Journal For The Australian Nursing Profession, 28, 1/2, pp. 149-161, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Omer, T 2012, Research Utilization in a Multicultural Nursing Setting in Saudi Arabia: Barriers and Facilitators, Journal Of Nursing Research (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins), 20, 1, pp. 66-73, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Miller-Rosser, K, Chapman, Y, & Francis, K 2006, HISTORICAL, CULTURAL, AND CONTEMPORARY INFLUENCES ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN NURSING IN SAUDI ARABIA, Online Journal Of Issues In Nursing, 11, 3, p. 3, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Suliman, W, Welmann, E, Omer, T, & Thomas, L 2009, Applying Watsons Nursing Theory to Assess Patient Perceptions of Being Cared for in a Multicultural Environment, Journal Of Nursing Research (Taiwan Nurses Association), 17, 4, pp. 293-300, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Zakari, N, Al Khamis, N, & Hamadi, H 2010, Conflict and professionalism: perceptions among nurses in Saudi Arabia,International Nursing Review, 57, 3, pp. 297-304, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 23 June 2014. Read More