Saudi Arabia needs more nurses, particularly in specialized fields. It has sought to solve the problem through hiring foreign workers, primarily Filipinos, but is now looking to train more Saudis to take the jobs. Note that Saudi Arabia has many more male Saudi nurses than female Saudi nurses. That could and should change if society can learn to accept Saudi women’s working with male patients. But given that there are critical shortages in areas such as pediatrics and neonatal care, you’d think it oughtn’t be that hard.

Move under way to train Saudi nurses
M. Ghazanfar Ali Khan I Arab News

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia is in the process of recruiting 2,000 Filipino nurses and has announced 1,000 scholarships for Saudi girls in a move to address the shortage of specialist nursing staff.

More than 10,000 nurses are urgently required to make up for the shortfall and this move by the Ministry of Health (MOH) will help train Saudi nurses with the aim to cut dependence on foreign nursing staff.

“A number of seats for Saudi women have also been reserved in premier health institutions in Jordan, Australia, the US, Britain and Bahrain, to enable them to pursue specialist nursing training,” said Dr. Munira Al-Osaimi, MOH’s director general of nursing, here yesterday. The MOH, which is seeking to increase the number of Saudis in the nursing sector to 60 percent within the next five years, is also offering advance training to nurses who have graduated from Kingdom’s medical colleges.
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