مؤسسة الشرق الأوسط للنشر العلمي
عادةً ما يتم الرد في غضون خمس دقائق
The nursing and pharmacy sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) played a vital role in the health preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The KSA faced several challenges, such as low nursing school capacity, high employment of expatriates, labor market fragmentation, shortage of nurses in rural areas, uneven quality, and gender issues. However, the KSA also implemented various policy interventions to support the transformation of nursing into a profession that contributes to efficient, high-quality healthcare for every Saudi citizen. These interventions included creating a pipeline of nurses from middle and high school to nursing school, offering diverse career paths and postgraduate education for nurses, making nursing practice more attractive and family friendly, modernizing existing nurse postgraduate education, opening new postgraduate programs in nursing, creating new positions and career paths for nurses such as telenursing, informatics, and quality, providing incentives and increased compensation packages for underserved areas, and strengthening nursing leadership at all levels. The KSA also documented its experience and strategies in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and shared its innovative concepts and models with the international community. The KSA's experience in health preparedness and response to COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance and potential of the nursing and pharmacy sector in the KSA and beyond.