Comparative Analysis of the Competencies of Saudi Nurses in Al-Iman General Hospital - Term Paper Example

Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Date Introduction In 2010, the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia and other health care associations stipulated a Bachelor’s Degree in nursing as the minimum entry requirement for professional nurses in the healthcare sector. Following the declaration, nurses have to attain a Bachelor’s degree in nursing prior to securing an entry into nursing practice (AlMadani 142). The requirement resulted in the failure of some governmental healthcare institutions from renewing the contracts of diploma holders working as nurses in health centers and hospitals. The requirement does not affect healthcare institutions run by the Ministry of Health (MoH) because they do not hire diploma holders in the nursing practice. The competencies of the two profiles suffice to be the point of reference concerning their ability to offer nursing services in healthcare institutions. The paper addresses the issue of competency between the two groups of nurses and its influence on their ability to deliver effective nursing care to patients. The research selects Al Iman General Hospital as the study sample. Statement of the Problem The objective of the study is to provide a comparative analysis of Saudi diploma and bachelor’s degree nurses in the delivery of nursing care. The need for specialist services in specialist disease areas such as diabetes has necessitated the need for hiring nurses that have a bachelor’s degree rather than diploma holders. Even though nurses with diplomas are efficient in the delivery of general services and menial work such as cleaning, they lack adequate nursing skills required to deal with specialist disease areas. Study Hypotheses The null hypothesis of the study states that H0: There is no significant difference in the competencies of nurses in the delivery of nursing care when grouped according to their profile. H1: There is a significant difference in the competencies of nurses in the delivery of nursing care when grouped according to their profile. The study will test the hypothesis at a level of significance, α = 0.05. Therefore, the study will reject the null hypothesis, H0 if p< α. Literature Review The allocation of non-professional work such as secretariat roles at the time when the healthcare sector in Saudi Arabia is witnessing a rapid increase in hospital admissions has contributed massively to the declining engagement of diploma nurses in professional nursing practice. Nurses in Saudi Arabia have identified the challenge and stated that their engagement in clerical work such as the follow up of letters has had an adverse impact on their professional practice by redirecting their roles from nursing practice to other roles (Mutair 2). Consequently, nurses have reduced their dedication to patient care. As a strategy of improving nursing practice in Saudi Arabia, it is important for nurses to concentrate on their nursing practice and leave secretaries to handle their roles. This turns out to be one of the measures aimed at improving nursing practice in Saudi Arabia. Enhancing the professional competence of nursing professionals in Saudi Arabia is the other measure of improving the delivery of nursing care in Saudi Arabia. Developing nurses professionally through the attainment of a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN) would have a massive contribution towards improving the quality of nursing care in Saudi Arabia. The decision of hospitals to hire nursing professionals with a bachelor’s degree in nursing in nursing emanates from the need to improve the quality of nursing care in the healthcare institutions. This in turn leads to improved patient outcomes. The need for nurses to possess a bachelor’s degree in nursing occurs at a time when many of the global nations have already implemented the directive (AlMadani 136). However, it is evident that a significant proportion of nurses in Saudi Arabia have diplomas in nursing. The implication is that the nurses in question have to undergo additional training in a university setting while on practice to comply with the directive or risk termination of their contracts. It is evident that nurses with a level of education of at least of bachelor’s degree guarantee may subject patients to reduced cases of failures in patient care (Gazzaz et al. 41). Besides having to undergo professional development through university education, nurses should also attend workshops, seminars, and conferences to strengthen the self-confidence of nurses, increase their independency, and boost their performance. The current nursing and medical errors noted in healthcare settings in Saudi Arabia reiterate the need for subjecting nurses to professional development in the quest to improve nursing care and patient outcomes. Rather than professional development, it is apparent that other factors that contribute towards poor nursing care. These include the lack of a positive organizational culture and climate and no clear policies, values, vision, and mission. Therefore, the need to improve patient outcomes should also take into consideration these factors. Nurses that undergo university education in nursing also exhibit a high success rate of handling advanced levels of practice. Instead of training for two or three years as is the norm with diploma courses on nursing, the new directive implies that aspiring nurses would have to train for approximately four years to acquire a bachelor’s degree in nursing (BSN). The Nursing and Midwifery Council has set out the standards that institutions would follow in training nurses. University education subjects nursing students to more practical experience that extends beyond the boundaries of the hospital. Even though current standards are a combination of both theoretical and practical aspects, the new standards include training nursing students in community health teams. Rather than using district and school nurses to visit people in their homes, the new standards transfer this role to trainee nurses (Martin 1). Apparently, nurses form the majority of healthcare professionals. As a result, their performance is detrimental to improved patient care and outcomes. However, one of the primary concerns of implementing the directive is the fear that graduate nurses would not perform menial jobs such as cleaning. However, the need to improve patient outcomes indicates that hospitals should hire professional cleaners to perform such activities and ascertain that nurses concentrate on their professional areas. The other fear emanates from the fact that the directive would chase excellent candidates that consider the prospect of spending three years in training impractical (Martin 1). Such candidates would consider the option of relocating to other countries or their home countries thereby resulting in inadequate nurse professionals in Saudi Arabia. However, the increased demand for healthcare services has reiterated the need for nurses to start making high-level judgments rather than waiting for the doctors. The one and only way of ensuring that nurses can make high-level judgments is professional development by requiring them to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing. The decision of the locals to embrace affluent lifestyles has elicited specific healthcare conditions that require specialist care such as obesity and its associated diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and Type 2 diabetes (Aldossary et al. 128). However, the existing group of diploma nurses does not have the necessary expertise and skills to deliver specialist patient care. This emphasizes the need for subjecting nurses to professional development in a university setting. Professional development would also enable the existing group of nurses to have additional skills required for their professional practice. Moreover, the directive would ascertain that the current trainee nurses acquire bachelor’s degrees in nursing before entering the nursing workforce to guarantee improved patient outcomes and healthcare quality. The directive also aims at enabling Saudi Arabia to have its own workforce of highly trained nurses that can deliver specialist-nursing services to patients thereby eliminating the overdependence of the country on foreign nurses. AlMadani reiterates the fact that one of the major problems affecting nurses in Saudi Arabia is the fact that a significant proportion of the nurses do not have a bachelor’s degree in nursing (AlMadani 124). The consequence is the inability of such nurses to meet the increasing demand for specialized services in SA. According to AlMadani, the educational issue is a major impediment to the delivery of high-quality patient care by nurses in the country. As opposed to the initial situation, Saudi Arabia continues to record an increase in the demand for advanced levels of nursing care. From the argument, it is evident that there is a significant difference in the competencies of nurses when grouped according to their profile. Currently, Saudi Arabia is suffering from the dire shortage of highly trained nursing staff. Besides being a national phenomenon that limits its effects to Saudi Arabia, it is evident that most nations across the globe continue to encounter the challenge. In order to improve the quality of the services delivered by nurses in Saudi Arabia, professional development and the provision of sufficient job facilities are detrimental and imperative (AlMadani 136). Healthcare issues have been undergoing constant changes that have emanated from the changing lifestyles of individuals that have yielded additional healthcare conditions that require specialist services. Universities have responded to the trend by improving their curriculums to train nurses on the effective ways of addressing the new healthcare issues. The revised educational standards have also seen the combination of knowledge with training to enhance the ability of nurses to deal with the emerging healthcare conditions. However, the already existing nurses cannot deliver such services without undergoing additional training. Raising the ceiling of absorbing nurses into the nursing practice from a diploma to a degree would play a crucial role towards enhancing the competencies of nurses thereby enabling them to deal with the emerging healthcare conditions. Alamri also identified the shortage of professional nurses among Saudi students living either abroad or within the country. The author reiterated the need for increasing the number of Saudi students pursuing courses leading to degree in nursing if the country intends to combat the shortage of nurses. Rather than focusing on increasing the number of nursing students, Alamri notes the essence of increasing nursing professionalism by shifting focus to nursing graduate education (Alamri 91). King Abdulaziz University and King Saud University are the only universities that offer masters nursing degree. On the aspect of doctoral programs, nursing students regard such programs to be a dream. The need for specialized nursing services necessitates a shift in the education system from diplomas to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees in nursing. Apparently, nurses that have such expert training are in a better position of making high-level judgements when faced with a healthcare scenario. The MoH in Saudi Arabia should endeavor to offer high-levels of nursing education in its endeavor to deal with the current and emerging healthcare conditions. Most of the nurses in the hospitals under the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia are non-licensed. The consequence of hiring unlicensed nurses is evident in the rising number of medical and nursing errors reported from such institutions. The lack of nursing competence suffices to be the primary reason behind the inability of unlicensed nurses to deliver high-quality nursing services (Mutair 1). Nursing errors have caused significant harm to patients wasted time required to report an error whenever it happens, and resulted in significant costs. Apparently, the reporting of the error alone implies that the patient would have to leave the patient for a while. It also increases the load of the nurse thereby having an adverse impact on patient outcomes. In order to improve the services delivered by nurses in Saudi hospitals, professional development is mandatory. Besides improving the services, professional development also improves the quality of the services. The US healthcare sector has also placed a directive that requires majority of graduates in nursing (80%) to have a bachelor’s degree in nursing by 2020. The directive has emanated from the concern raised by other individuals and organizations that the increasing complexity of nursing care requires professional nurses to have at least a baccalaureate degree. Besides the Affordable Care Act, majority of healthcare institutions in the US have also placed a significant emphasis on quality metrics. As a result, the US healthcare sector requires a BSN-level preparation as a prerequisite for the entry of nurse professionals into the nursing practice. Rather than quality metrics, the other aspects that necessitate BSN-level preparation on the part of nursing students include care coordination, prevention and coordination, and population health management. The need to reduce costs and improve the quality of healthcare suffices to be the incentives behind the directive of a BSN-level preparation on the part of nurses that intend to start practicing (Auerbach et al. 34). There is a close association between patient outcomes and the performance of nurses. As a result, the decisions made by nurses during the delivery of patient care have an influence on the quality of patient outcomes. In most cases, nurses have to make independent decisions regarding their assessments about the patient. This necessitates significant nursing expertise and skills on the part of nurses; an attribute that nurses holding diplomas do not have. Nurses have also exhibited the inability to utilize standardized care and critical paths thereby resulting in medical and nursing errors (Mutair 2). It is evident that the current bachelor’s degree program in nursing provides nurses with the skills required in the implementation of critical paths and standardized care processes in the delivery of patient care. Moreover, diploma programs in nursing do not impart substantial leadership and management skills to nurse trainees. Consequently, numerous managerial troubles are evident. The lack of management and leadership skills among less-trained nurses also causes interruptions in the coordination of the different categories of nursing staff (Mutair 3). A combination of these issues with the inadequate competence of diploma nurses contributes towards the poor performance of the hospital since such nurses are unable to deliver the required services. The need for performance improvement and patient safety in the delivery of nursing care necessitates the implementation of professional development measures by ascertaining that all nurses have a bachelor’s degree before enrolling into the nursing practice. Works Cited Alamri, Majed. "Higher education in Saudi Arabia." Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice 11.4 (2011): 88. Aldossary, Ameera, Alison While, and Louise Barriball. "Health care and nursing in Saudi Arabia." International nursing review 55.1 (2008): 125-128. AlMadani, Noura Abdullah. "Degree education as an entry requirement for qualified nurses in Saudi Arabia: An overview." J Macro Trends Health Med 3 (2015): 142-55. Auerbach, David I., Peter I. Buerhaus, and Douglas O. Staiger. "Do associate degree registered nurses fare differently in the nurse labor market compared to baccalaureate-prepared RNs?." Nursing Economics 33.1 (2015): 8. Gazzaz, Lamya Asaad. Saudi nurses' perceptions of nursing as an occupational choice: a qualitative interview study. Diss. University of Nottingham, 2009. Martin, Daniel. All new NHS nurses must have degree by 2013. Daily Mail (2009). Mutair, Al Abbas. Quality of Nursing Care in Saudi Arabia: Needs for Improvement. J Nurs Care 4 (2015): 309. Read More