Health care and nursing in Saudi Arabia A. Aldossary 1 BSN, MSc, Dip HSM, A. While 2 BSc, MSc, PhD, RGN, RHV, CertEd & L. Barriball 3 BSc, PhD, RGN 1 Lecturer in Nursing, Prince Sultan Military College of Health Sciences, Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, currently Doctoral Student at King’s College London, 2 Professor of Community Nursing, King’s College London and Associate Dean (External Affairs), Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, London, 3 Senior Lecturer, King’s College London, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, London, UK ALDOSSARY A., WHILE A. & BARRIBALL L. (2008) Health care and nursing in Saudi Arabia. International Nursing Review 55, 125–128 Aim: This paper reviews healthcare provision in Saudi Arabia and the development of nursing together with its current challenges. Background: Health care in Saudi Arabia is developing fast with multiple governmental and independent service providers. Economic growth has impacted upon health needs through population and health behaviour change. The development of the indigenous nursing workforce has been slow resulting in much nursing care being delivered by migrant nurses. Conclusion: There is a need to increase the proportion of indigenous nurses so that culturally appropriate holistic care can be delivered. Without shared culture and language, it will be difficult to deliver effective health education within nursing care to Saudis. Keywords: Healthcare, Nurse Migration, Nursing, Saudi Arabia Health and health care in Saudi Arabia The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest countries in the Middle East at 2.24 million km 2 [World Health Organization – Eastern Mediterranean Region (WHO-EMRO) 2004] and has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Oil wealth has pre- cipitated a rapid socio-economic transition over the past years causing a marked impact on health and lifestyle. Latest popula- tion figures show that Saudi Arabia has reached a population of 24 573 000 with 10 690 being under the age of 18 years. The annual population growth rate is 2.7% and the total fertility rate is 3.8. Because of advancements in both health care and social services, life expectancy has increased from 52 years in 1970 to 72 in 2005 and because of the compulsory vaccination that took place in the 1980s, the under 5 years of age mortality rate has dropped dramatically from 250 per 1000 live births in 1960 to 26 per 1000 in 2005. All the urban population in Saudi Arabia has access to good sanitation and 97% have access to clean water (UNICEF 2005). The Saudi Arabian government has committed enormous resources to improving health care, with the ultimate goal of providing free and accessible healthcare services for every Saudi national and expatriate working within the public sector. While expatriate workers within the private sector are sponsored by their employers, healthcare financing in Saudi Arabia is provided primarily from the government budget, which is largely based on oil and gas revenues (Al-Yousuf et al. 2002). The total expendi- ture on health is 3.8% of GDP with 77.1% from government and 22.9% from private expenditure (World Health Organization 2005). Correspondence address: Alison While, King’s College London, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, James Clerk Maxwell Building, Waterloo Road, London SE1 8WA, UK; Tel: 44-020-78483022; Fax: 44-020-78483506; E-mail: alison.while@kcl.ac.uk. Short Communication © 2008 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2008 International Council of Nurses 125