Author: Eidan S E H S Alrasheid
Alrasheid, Eidan S E H S, 2024 Community perceptions of nursing and its impact on the shortage of Kuwaiti nurses, Flinders University, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
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Background: Globally, nurses represent the largest professional group in the healthcare workforce
and are central to a nation’s healthcare plan. Recent studies highlight the shortage of nursing in
every healthcare system, especially in Arabian countries. In Kuwait, only 5% of the local population
work as nurses; therefore, expatriates are recruited. Inadequate levels of knowledge and community
awareness are considered as key two factors responsible for employment shortage in the profession.
The lack of local Kuwaiti nationals (only 5%) taking up nursing as a career is now of major concern,
and yet this area of employment shortage remains largely under-researched.
Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of the Kuwaiti community towards nursing
as an occupation.
Methods: This research adopted a mixed-methods, sequential explanatory design to explore and
address the research questions. This type of research design is seen as a suitable approach to
understand community attitudes and conceptions of nursing as an occupation in Kuwait as it allows
the researcher to assess the knowledge of the community. This study was conducted in two phases.
Part 1 used a quantitative method via questionnaires. Part 2 used a qualitative method via semi-
structured interviews. A total 288 parents and 302 students from five secondary schools (three male
and two female schools) and a total of 22 participants (11 males and 11 females) were recruited to
participate in the interviews in Kuwait.
Results/Findings: The quantitative results demonstrated that 11% of students indicated their
intention to study nursing, 50.8% did not intend to study nursing, and 37.1% were undecided about
whether to study nursing or not. The parents, on the other hand, stated their intention to encourage
their children to study nursing as yes 26.8%, no 73.1%. The results also show that Kuwaiti parents
were willing to encourage their children to study nursing if working hours improved in hospitals in
Kuwait. Further barriers include community perceptions, financial considerations, and the mixed-
gender environment. The Kuwaiti community believes that the nursing profession is not a suitable
profession for their children due to the work conditions and working hours that are associated with
nursing. The qualitative findings were presented as three main themes; the barriers affecting
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students’ and parents’ perceptions of the nursing profession, the factors influencing a student’s
career choice and Kuwaiti nurses’ experience and challenges related to nursing as a profession.
These themes explained, confirmed and found discordant findings in comparison to the quantitative
results. Moreover, the findings indicate that year 12 students, parents, nursing students and nurses
believe the perception of the nursing profession needs to be improved due to various barriers
preventing students from studying nursing. Moreover, nurses expressed their concerns about the
obstacles to reaching professionalism, with policy and supportive system shortfalls.
Conclusion: There is a lack of research on Kuwaiti community’s perceptions
towards nursing and nurses in general hospitals in Kuwait. Further, the factors that influence year
12 students in Kuwait to pursue nursing as a career are poorly understood. Therefore, there is a
clear need to investigate the factors that influence these perceptions, along with a need to explore
and investigate any sociocultural factors that could influence the community and enablers relating to
this issue. Community perception, Kuwait’s attitudes regarding the image of nursing and working
environment obstacles impact parents’ decision to encourage their children to study nursing. These
factors must be addressed to alleviate the shortage of nurses.
Keywords: nursing shortage, social attitude, community perception, nursing image, public image, Kuwait, Kuwaiti nurses.
Subject: Nursing thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2024
School: College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Supervisor: Associate Professor Yvonne K Parry