Conclusion

(all Saudi nurses, including diploma, bachelor, and advanced nurses) and assuming no policy intervention, the health sector is projected to have enough Saudi health workers to meet epidemiological needs in 2030. When counting only Saudi bachelor and advanced nurses, however (that is, leaving out diploma nurses, who have recently been reclassified as technicians), there will be a projected shortage of nurses relative to needs in 2030. Partly because of the low number of Saudi bachelor and advanced nurses, there will be more funded jobs (labor market demand) than available workers to fill them, resulting in a projected labor market shortage. education and labor market policies are needed to scale up the number of Saudi bachelor and advanced nurses, including scaling up preservice education capacity and financing bridging programs for diploma nurses, that is, additional in-service training to help diploma nurses become bachelor nurses. In addition, there is a need to review and work toward generating greater efficiency of existing financing and expenditures on human resources for health, including reallocating resources to bridging and training programs and task-sharing between cadres.

The report also points to the need to prioritize policies to increase employment in the private sector, in primary care settings, and for women. The projections show that, without policy intervention, the vast number of Saudi health workers will be employed in the MOH sector at the hospital level, and that the majority of physicians will be male. Policy intervention will be crucial to ensuring that the health system meets the objectives of reorienting to center around primary care and preventive care. Similarly, policy changes will be required to ensure that the supply of female physicians meets patient demand. Such interventions have already commenced in Saudi Arabia. They will need to be continued and expanded to meet the needs of changing mandates and priorities and to ensure the Saudi health system is more patient-centered, efficient, and responsive.

CONCLUSION

This report is relevant to planners and policy makers in Saudi Arabia. The report generates important new evidence that can be used for strategic planning of the physician and nursing workforce. concerted interventions in the education and health labor market will be critical if the goals outlined under Vision 2030 are to be met—including reducing dependency on expatriates; meeting changing health care needs; increasing employment opportunities in the labor market, in particular for women; shifting the health system away from hospital care to primary and preventive care; and generating greater efficiency and quality with existing resources.

The report is also relevant to planners and policy makers outside Saudi Arabia. The report represents the first time that epidemiological needs and labor market demand and supply have been projected simultaneously to identify future imbalances. The findings from and use of such a labor market approach are thus also of interest beyond policy makers and planners in Saudi Arabia. They reveal more broadly the usefulness of such methods to help planners ensure that needs and goals are met and that financial resources are used as efficiently as possible. In addition to their use in Saudi Arabia, the findings can help guide similar efforts elsewhere to generate new and country-specific evidence about workforce