1. The Need to Improve Quality of Nursing care, Patient’s Safety and Evidence-Based Practice in Saudi Arabia
Dr Abbas Al Mutair
Ph.D, MN, BN, CCN Post Grad Dip, RN
Mohammed Al Mana College for Health Sciences, KSA

2. Aim Outlines Quality of nursing care and the need for improvement
This paper aims to discuss the need to improve quality of nursing care in Saudi Arabia in terms of:
Quality of nursing care
Patient safety
Evidence based nursing practice.
Quality of nursing care and the need for improvement
Healthcare system in Saudi Arabia.
Nursing workforce in Saudi Arabia
Safety and performance improvement.
Evidence-based nursing practice

3. Quality of nursing care and the need for improvement
Quality improvement in Saudi Arabia has become a major focus within health care, especially in the areas of regulatory quality, quality assurance, quality improvement and patient safety.
The issues and trends affecting nursing care today are increasingly complex and dynamic.
There is a great need for nurses to improve the quality of health care delivery

4. Cont.
A key policy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia being implemented as a part of the ninth development plan in KSA ( ), with regard to health services, is the need to adopt methods to improve quality of care, and to apply these methods across all health sectors to ensure the appropriate levels of efficiency and quality care achieved.

5. Healthcare system in Saudi Arabia
The health care system in Saudi Arabia has there sectors: No
Health sector
No of Hospitals
No of Beds 1
Ministry of Health
244 (58.9%)
33277 (59.5%) 2
Other governmental health sectors
39 (9.5%)
10822 (19.5%) 3
Private Hospitals
125 (30.6%)
11833 (21%)
Total
408 (100%)
55932 (100%)

6. Nursing workforce in Saudi Arabia.No
Health sector
Saudi Nurses
Expatriates
Total 1
Ministry of Health
31824 (50.2%)
31473 (50.8%)
63297(100%) 2
Other governmental health sectors
2883 (11.8%)
21370 (88.9%)
24253 (100%) 3
Private Hospitals
525 (5.5%)
8946 (94.5%)
9471 (100%)

7. Patient safety
The need to improve patient safety for continuous quality improvement has been extensively recognized as a key priority in many countries over the entire world
Nurses give lower significance to patient safety compared to other healthcare professionals in SA due to:
Failures of leadership
Absence of patient-safety culture
A need for better management

8. Medical errors
There are more than one definition of error in the literature.
Medical error: The failure of a planned action to be
completed as intended (an error of execution) or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim (an error of planning) ( Reason, 1990)

9. Type of “errors”
Adverse event The Harvard Medical Practice study defines it as “an unintended injury that was caused by medical management and that resulted in measurable disability”
Negligence was defined “as failure to meet the standard of care, reasonably expected of an average physician, qualified to take care of the patient in question”

10. Cont. Near Miss any event that could have had an adverse patient
consequence but did not, and was indistinguishable
From a full-fledged adverse event in all but
outcome (Barach and Small, 2000).

11. Barriers in reporting medication administration errors by nurses
Fear from being blamed (fear of punishment).
Education
Lack of policy
Lack of interdisciplinary collaboration and communication.
Lack of safety culture.
(Aboshaiqah, 2013)

12. Recommendations to reduce medical errors
Healthcare system should be designed to ensure patient safety possibly in the following three ways:
By designing the system to prevent errors
Designing procedures to make errors visible when they occur so that they may be rectified.
By designing procedures for mitigating the adverse effects of errors when they are not detected and rectified.

13. International Patient safety goals
Identify Patients Correctly.
Improve Effective Communication .
Improve the Safety of High-Alert Medications .
Ensure Correct-Site, Correct-Procedure, Correct Patient Surgery.
Reduce the Risk of Health Care-Associated Infections.
Reduce the Risk of Patient Harm Resulting from Falls.

14. Evidence-based Practice EBP
Education and research should be valued by nurses in Saudi Arabia and their participation must demonstrate pride and commitment to the nursing profession.
Nurses are responsible and accountable for their practice and they should provide evidence of standards of the care they provide.
Nurses are required to develop their knowledge and skills in line with the latest available evidence.

15. Cont. EBP
Defined as “integrating individual clinical expertise with the commitment to being a leading source of knowledge and best available external clinical evidence from resources that foster evidence-based nursing practice systematic research (Sackett, Rosenberg & Gray, 1996).

16. Barriers to EBP utilization among nurses in Saudi Arabia
Organization characteristics
Lack of time
Lack of nursing autonomy
Lack of knowledge “feeling of not
capable of evaluating the quality of research”
Lack of research skills
Lack of resources (database)
Lack of computer facilities
Lack of qualification

17. Conclusion
This paper exemplifies the need for further improvement in the quality of nursing care.
Many of the problems identified in this review could be monitored which could push for improvements in efficacy and quality of care.
Nurses in Saudi Arabia should obligate to provide all patients a safe and caring environment and optimum nursing services.
They are also required to demonstrate the highest quality of care supported by professional development.
This should be collaborated with the other healthcare providers and supported by evidence based practice.
Nurses must be empowered to continuously improve care and service for meeting quality of patient care

18. References
Aboshaiqah, A. E. (2013). Barriers in Reporting Medication Administration Errors as Perceived by Nurses in Saudi Arabia”. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 17(2),
Al-Mutair, A. (2015). Quality of nursing care in Saudi Arabia: needs for improvement. Journal of Nursing and Care, 4 (6), 1-3.
Aljadhey, H., Mahmoud, M. A., Hassali, M. A., Alrasheedy, A., Alahmad, A., Saleem, F., ... & Bates, D. W. (2014). Challenges to and the future of medication safety in Saudi Arabia: A qualitative study. Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal, 22(4),
Elarab, H. S. E., El Salam, S. A., Behalik, S. G., & Eltayeb, H. E. (2012). Nurses, Practice, Knowledge and Attitude towards Evidence-Based Practice at Yanbu general hospital-kingdom of Saudi Arabia. LIFE SCIENCE JOURNAL-ACTA ZHENGZHOU UNIVERSITY OVERSEAS EDITION, 9(3),
Sackett, D. L., Rosenberg, W. M., Gray, J. A., Haynes, R. B., & Richardson, W. S. (1996). Evidence based medicine: what it is and what it isn't. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 312(7023), 71.
Salem, O. (2013). Evidence Based Nursing Practice Inside and Outside Middle East. World Applied Sciences Journal, 27(7),

19. Thank You Have A Nice Day