Health Policy Development During COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: Mixed Methods Analysis

The Registered Nurses amid COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia: A descriptive phenomenological study

AIM

To investigate the experiences of registered nurses' lived experiences in the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic crisis in a government hospital in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia.

DESIGN

Qualitative descriptive phenomenology.

METHODS

Utilizing in-depth interviews with twenty registered nurses with the use of purposive sampling from September to December 2020. Data was analyzed using Colaizzi methods, and a COREQ checklist was utilized to report the study's results.

RESULTS

The participants' narratives generated three major themes, namely: 'one foot below the ground', 'the nightingale pledge'; and 'hope beyond COVID-19'. The lived experiences of Registered Nurses throughout the pandemic brought by the COVID-19 virus increase a person's understanding of the phenomenon under investigation and plan collective actions to improve the nurses' welfare. The unique challenges faced by Registered Nurses as they carry out their duties in a variety of healthcare settings can be better appreciated if their experiences are taken into account. Nursing administrations all around the world can use the findings of this research to create safeguards for their staff.

The Shared Experience of Insured and Uninsured Patients: A Comparative Study

Background

Despite efforts to ensure equitable quality of care for all patients, a significant gap persists between the quality of care experienced by insured and uninsured patients in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to identify and compare the differences between insured and uninsured patients in terms of their experience of quality of care in a tertiary hospital.

Methods

A descriptive cross-sectional study was utilized. Insured and uninsured individuals who had undergone identical medical procedures in early 2021 were identified from a public 500-bed tertiary hospital. About 350 patients participated in this study by completing an online, self-administered questionnaire, adopted by Abuosi and others in 2016, assessing six dimensions of quality of care.

Results

Significant differences were reported between the quality of care experienced by insured and uninsured subjects (M = 3.37, SD = 0.525, and M = 3.06, SD = 0.452, respectively, p=0.001). While insured group reported high quality of care, followed by fairness of care (r = 0.744 and r = 0.675, p ≤ 0.001, n = 175), uninsured subjects experienced less fairness with low quality of care.

Conclusions

The insured individuals were found to be more attentive to the quality of care offered by the hospital than their counterparts. Efforts to close the gap in quality of care should include monitoring healthcare outcomes, adopting transparency standards, and facilitating procedures to minimize barriers among patients.