Under the patronage of Minister of Health Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, King Fahd Specialist Hospital in Dammam started the 2nd international nursing conference on Wednesday which continued until Thursday at Sheraton.

The conference mainly focused on providing network opportunities for nurses to engage in global practice issues and concerns. It also engages nurses in dialogue with the aim of inspiring professional transformation.

The theme of the conference was named after the slogan Nursing Autonomy in Practice — Achieving Nurse Satisfaction and Optimal Patient Care. Speaking to Arab News, Salih Al Hetala, Director of Academic Affairs Administration at KFSH said: “The shortage of Saudization in the nursing field led us to hire foreign staff in order to provide high-quality services to patients and maintain quality.” He added “we have sent 50 Saudi nurses to pursue their bachelor degrees inside and outside the kingdom. We sent them abroad in order to increase the number of Saudis in this field.”

“There will be about 80 development programs as well as scholarships for about 150 doctors and employees to purse their studies outside the Kingdom. We will arrange 200 medical training activities for nurses,” said Al Hetala.

Executive Director of Nursing at KFSH, Rita Anderson, told Arab News that Saudis account for less than 10% of nurses at the hospital. She said “the total number of nursing staff is about 800 nurses and only 80 of them are Saudi.”

Regarding medical errors, Al Hetala said “At present, 80 percent of medical mistakes are system-based mistakes where 20 percent fall on human error. We don’t expect everyone to be perfect although we are working to provide any means of help and course training to staff so that they can offer high-quality service to the patients.”

Rita commented that “everybody should take accountability for their expectations on their profession, experience and knowledge.”

“We don’t punish nurses for mistakes. We do, however, hold nurses accountable if they don’t follow policy,” she said.