Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted NURSING INFORMATICS COMPETENCY AND EFFECTIVE CLINICAL DECISION-MAKING AMONG NURSES IN SAUDI ARABIA(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) ALRUWAILI, SABIRIN; Al Osta, MohammadABSTRACT Introduction: Clinical Decision-Making (CDM) is among the essential skills in the nursing profession that affect the outcomes of provided care. Nurses utilize various resources to achieve optimal care outcomes, including nursing informatics tools and skills, where nurses’ competencies play a vital role. Aim: To examine the relationship between nursing informatics competency and the levels of clinical decision-making skills among nurses in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A descriptive correlational design with convenience sampling methods was used to conduct the current study. A self-report questionnaire that consists of questions about demographic characteristics, the Nursing Informatics Competency Assessment Tool (NICAT), and the Clinical Decision-Making in Nursing Scale (CDMNS). Data were collected between May and July 2024 using online Google Forms from registered nurses at three governmental hospitals in Saudi Arabia. Results: 160 registered nurses participated in the study. The results show that nurses in Saudi Arabia were “proficient” in their nursing informatics competencies with total scale average (M=110.5, SD ±24.3), and have a perceived “medium” level in their effective clinical decision-making with total average score (148.6, SD ±32.0). Moreover, there was a statistically significant strong linear relationship between nursing informatics competency and perceived levels of clinical decision-making (r=.734, p<.001). However, nursing informatics competency was the sole statistically significant predictor (β=0.7, p<.001) of their perceived level of clinical decision-making. Conclusion and Implications: The study presented the critical role of nursing informatics competency in clinical decision-making among nurses. The results highlight to the healthcare stakeholders and nursing management the importance of investing in targeted informatics training and the integration of nursing informatics clinical decision support tools into the clinical nursing practice. Moreover, the findings encourage researchers to explore additional factors influencing clinical decision-making through longitudinal and qualitative research methods to gain a deeper understanding of this complex process.20 0Item Restricted An Exploration of the Suitability of Pharmacy Education in Saudi Arabia to Prepare Graduates to Meet Healthcare Needs: a Mixed-Methods Study(2023-08-01) Alfaifi, Salihah Hadi; Bridges, Stephanie; Arakawa, NaokoThe key role of pharmacists within the health system, particularly in optimising safe, responsible and effective use of medicines, underpins the demand for a highly skilled and competent workforce. Therefore, developing the capacity of pharmacists to attain and maintain essential competencies relevant to the population’s health needs is required to ensure a high standard of patient care, thereby helping to improve patient and population health. In Saudi Arabia, little evidence exists regarding the assessment of national educational programmes’ structure and outcomes. Moreover, no national competency framework exists for pharmacists in any sector or stage of practice. In the absence of such core quality elements to inform pharmacy education assessment and development, the extent to which pharmacy schools in Saudi Arabia prepare competent pharmacists to address societal needs from pharmacy services is unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the extent to which pharmacy education can prepare competent pharmacists to address the healthcare needs for pharmacy practice in Saudi Arabia. An exploratory sequential mixed methods research design was used to address the aim of this study in three phases: individual interviews and focus groups were employed with a purposively selected sample of pharmacy policy makers, pharmacists and the public to explore societal healthcare needs and the roles required of pharmacists to meet those needs; a national online survey of pharmacists and an online nominal group consensus method of pharmacy experts were used to identify competencies considered essential to develop a profession-wide national foundation level competency framework; and a case study in which curriculum mapping of two purposively selected Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curricula was used to assess the extent to which the current pharmacy programme in Saudi Arabia meets the identified competencies of the developed national competency framework. Based on qualitative and quantitative analyses of societal healthcare needs, pharmacists’ roles, core competencies and curricular contents within the local context of Saudi Arabia, findings showed that there is a mismatch between initial education and real practice needs and expectations. While the country’s current needs from pharmacists are to optimise health system capacity and increase access to primary care services and medicines expertise in community pharmacies, the study indicated local education is product-oriented with a focus of curricular content and experiential training opportunities in most schools on preparing future pharmacists for hospital pharmacy practice. The study also identified several gaps between current initial education programmes and the competencies required to practise the expected roles, suggesting that current initial education might not prepare the students sufficiently to provide the full range of quality pharmaceutical services as per the country’s pharmacy practice needs. The study provided a new understanding of graduates’ readiness to practise as per the country’s pharmacy practice needs, the quality of educational programmes and pharmacists' professional development opportunities in Saudi Arabia. Findings maybe used to inform the development of competency-based education and maximise graduates’ capacity to deliver and develop pharmaceutical services effectively to best meet societal healthcare needs in Saudi Arabia.45 0