لخّصلي

It has been projected that by the year 2025, the population of KSA will reach 37 million (Alsadaan, N., Jones, L. K., Kimpton, A., & DaCosta, C., 2021).This new law would pose a challenge to nurses working in primary healthcare centers, most of whom are experienced nurses who have families to tend to. Imposing night shifts on female nurses, especially married ones, could place a mental and psychological strain on them and affect their disposition and satisfaction toward their jobs as healthcare professionals.This rapid growth will be accompanied by a demographic shift in disease occurrence, which is a global trend; it will also be accompanied by a surge in demand for healthcare services and a heavy workload on nursing services (Manojlovich, M., & Laschinger, H. K. S., 2008).Unfortunately, current employees, especially nursing staff, would need to adjust their shifts and accommodate evening/night duties in the primary healthcare centers.

It has been projected that by the year 2025, the population of KSA will reach 37 million (Alsadaan, N., Jones, L. K., Kimpton, A., & DaCosta, C., 2021). This rapid growth will be accompanied by a demographic shift in disease occurrence, which is a global trend; it will also be accompanied by a surge in demand for healthcare services and a heavy workload on nursing services (Manojlovich, M., & Laschinger, H. K. S., 2008).
Ministry of Health in KSA instituted a policy requiring on-duty primary healthcare centers to provide services for medical emergencies that do not necessarily need to be attended to (Ministry of Health., 2024). While this policy will favor patients, it implies that primary healthcare centers will have extended work shifts to provide service for 24 hours (Ministry of Health.,2024). Unfortunately, current employees, especially nursing staff, would need to adjust their shifts and accommodate evening/night duties in the primary healthcare centers. This new law would pose a challenge to nurses working in primary healthcare centers, most of whom are experienced nurses who have families to tend to. Imposing night shifts on female nurses, especially married ones, could place a mental and psychological strain on them and affect their disposition and satisfaction toward their jobs as healthcare professionals. This challenging situation is aggravated because of the extreme bottlenecks regarding nurse recruitment.
Hence, the increased burden of delivering care would be borne by the same number of nurses in each primary healthcare center without additional benefits. Thus, this high nurse-to-patient load would result in job dissatisfaction among nursing staff. Therefore, it is crucial to consider the work environment in this regard as psychosocial burdens, which are usually stressors that could lead to psychological, physical, and social harm even to nurses (Tomaszewska, K., Kowalczuk, K., Majchrowicz, B., Kłos, A., & Kalita, K., 2024).