RIYADH, 9 October 2004 — Saudis are slowly coming forward to join the nursing profession.

Both Mohammad H. Al-Ruwitea, manpower director at Riyadh Care Hospital, the venue of the nurses recruitment fair, and Dr. Sylvia Richardson, director of nursing, told Arab News that besides Muslim nurses from other countries, Saudi nurses were also applying, though in small numbers.

According to Al-Ruwitea, Saudi nurses constitute just one percent of the work force in that category in the Kingdom. “The main problem is their lack of communication skills in English. This makes it difficult for them to interface with the non-Arabic speaking patients and doctors.”

“We are trying to overcome this problem by targeting Saudi graduates from the health institutes and putting them through an orientation program, which includes English language and medical courses,” Al-Ruwitea said.

Regarding the nurses’ fair, Dr. Sylvia said: “We had a very good response and the number of candidates who turned up for interviews was quite high. They had experience in ICU, CCU and emergency room/operating room. We are also particularly pleased that Muslim nurses also turned up at the recruitment fair. Overall, we are delighted at the response, because all over the world there is an acute shortage of nurses, not just at our hospital.”

A large number of nurses from India and the Philippines turned up for the recruitment fair at the hospital in the Rabwa area. The hospital had 70 vacancies for nurses in different departments.

Asked if salaries were going up in response to the supply and demand situation, Al-Ruwitea said the pay scales were being “benchmarked in relation to the corresponding scales in other Gulf states.”

He said that instead of pay hike their hospital was concentrating on upgrading the facilities for the nurses and other medical/paramedical staff. One of the latest initiatives in this direction was the launch of the buddies program under which new arrivals get the company of their colleagues till such time as they adjust themselves to the new environment.

“We also make an effort to look after their needs. Nurses are also taken on regular shopping trips to meet their daily needs. Besides, they are provided free meals for the first three days till they receive their salary advance, which is SR500 for nurses and SR1,000 for doctors.”

As a result of these measures, the hospital’s attrition rate stands at 2.7 percent annually. In other words, it has retained the services of 97.3 percent of its staff on a long-term basis.

On the question of pay hike, a spokesman for Abdulrahman Al-Mishari Hospital told Arab News that salaries in their hospital were going up due to the shortage of nurses. “The main cause of shortage is lack of qualified and experienced personnel in this field in Saudi Arabia and the large expansion of health care facilities in the Kingdom. Since hospitals, both from within the Kingdom and from the Gulf states are competing for the services of these nurses, their pay scales were going up.”