Saudi minister announces nursing excellence award

The Saudi health minister, Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah, has announced the creation of a new prize, the “Minister of Health Award for Excellence in Nursing,” to be presented annually to recognize achievement in the profession.

He said the prize would help to promote nursing as a humanitarian pursuit in schools and universities, and raise awareness of its value across Saudi society, attracting more people to it and improving the quality of health care provision. He noted that 50 percent of health care workers in the Kingdom were nurses, amounting to almost 185,000 people, but that only 37 percent were Saudi citizens, something that he claimed needed to change.

In an address delivered to the first Saudi Nursing Forum in Riyadh on Monday, Al-Rabiah confirmed plans to increase the number of specialized training centers in Saudi Arabia, accredited by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, to be based in Madinah, Al-Qassim, Al-Ahsa, Taif and Najran.

He added that he would also establish a system to measure nursing productivity, a project to improve nursing services for the elderly and a restructure of the country’s midwifery system. SPA Riyadh