Transforming Nursing Care in Saudi Arabia through Telehealth

Abstract

Introduction: The Need for Telehealth in Saudi Arabia Analyzing the nation’s state of health, the allocation of the professional workforce, and hospital bed distribution is faced with stagnation and a quandary to achieve standards. Both healthcare providers and policymakers work to provide the best healthcare to citizens. The conception and instability of healthcare systems are problems in many countries, including Saudi Arabia. Juxtaposing national health systems informs a conversation about national laws, standards, objectives, and values. Ultimately, access to such services plays a key role in providing healthcare and the borders upon how we eat, where we work, and how our air and water are regulated, and where national systems succeed or not, glimpsing their capacity to maintain the health of populations and individuals. In search of a more transformative period in our lives, telehealth interventions have the promising capabilities of alleviating demand on scarce healthcare resources; however, there is still little evidence on the short- or long-term benefits of these interventions.
Methods: Title: Transforming Nursing Care in Saudi Arabia through Telehealth.
Introduction: Telehealth is the use of medical information that is electronically communicated to support healthcare with patients for assessment, education, and management. Telehealth could help decrease patients' waiting time, travel, and resource consumption. The objective of this study was to explore how telehealth is used and how it can be used to improve the quality and access to healthcare for nursing care in Saudi Arabian hospitals.
Methods: In order to identify the pivotal topic, a qualitative approach using a focus group was adopted. Participants were registered nurses working in different clinical areas among various hospitals. For the focus group discussions, researchers developed a moderated facilitation guide. A facilitator and two scribes per group were used to divide twenty participants.
Conclusion: Health care worldwide has had to adapt to enormous changes in the model of care delivery over the period of COVID-19. Most of these changes have been forced upon health care organizations rapidly due to crisis circumstances and have been maintained as a necessity of safety and as a shared adaptation of need. It is the hope that some of the changes of necessity will evolve towards long-term goals. The use of innovative technology developed to change these practices for the benefit of the health system, health practitioners, and—most importantly—the patients who use these services has been both a force for rapid change and for maintaining quality health care delivery. Nursing has been the foundation of support to many of these innovations and has benefited from the engagement and involvement with professional practice, research projects, and the building of programs for the delivery of services that promote the development of nursing excellence.
Health care in Saudi Arabia is actively promoting the advancement of education of Saudi nurses, with an ever-growing number achieving postgraduate qualifications, and an aspiration to have all professional nurses qualified to graduate level by the year 2030. There is also an overwhelming hunger for knowledge and advanced education; Saudi nurses show a high commitment to learning and are eager to acquire and improve their knowledge and skills. With the onus on the development of Health 4.0, nursing in Saudi Arabia remains determinedly in step with these developments to ensure that advancements in the care of the citizen are assured. This is crucial as the demographics are also changing—70% of the Saudi population will be aged over 60 by 2040 and an expat workforce is steadily returning to their own countries. In conclusion, and in answer to the question posed, the role of the nurse in Saudi Arabia in relation to the development of digital health practices is transformative and thriving as it meets the significant challenges of the healthcare system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.