ABSTRACT
Respiratory care [RC] is an allied health profession that involves assessing and treating patients who have pulmonary diseases. Research indicates that respiratory therapists' [RT's] involvement in caring for patients with respiratory disorders improves important outcome measures. In Kingdome of Saudi Arabia [KSA], RC has been practiced by RTs for more than 30 years. We sought to investigate the status of the RC workforce in Saudi Arabia in terms of demographic distribution, number, education, and RC service coverage. We used a specially designed survey to collect data. A list of 411 working hospitals in KSA was obtained. All hospitals were contacted to inquire if RC is practiced by RTs. Data were collected from hospitals that employ RTs. Only 88 hospitals, 21.4% of total hospitals in the country, have RTs. Out of the 244 Ministry of Health [MOH] hospitals, only 31 hospitals [12.7%] employ RTs. There are 1,477 active RTs in KSA. Twenty-five percent of them, or 371, are Saudis. The majority of the RT workforce [60%] work for non-MOH government hospitals, and almost half the total RTs work in Riyadh province. About 60% of RTs work in critical care settings. RC coverage of critical care was 44.5% of ideal. The overall RT-to-ICU bed ratio was 1:11. The ratio was 1:9 for non-MOH government hospitals, and 1:20 for MOH hospitals. We report the first insightful data on RC workforce in KSA. These data should be used by educational institutions and health policy makers to plan better RC coverage in the country
ABSTRACT
The professional content of sleep medicine has grown significantly over the past few decades, warranting the recognition of sleep medicine as an independent specialty. Because the practice of sleep medicine has expanded in Saudi Arabia over the past few years, a national regulation system to license and ascertain the competence of sleep medicine physicians and technologists has become essential. Recently, the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties formed the National Committee for the Accreditation of Sleep Medicine Practice and developed national accreditation criteria. This paper presents the newly approved Saudi accreditation criteria for sleep medicine physicians and technologists
ABSTRACT
Students who perceived their learning environment positively are more likely to develop effective learning strategies, and adopt a deep learning approach. Currently, there is no validated instrument for measuring the educational environment of educational programs on respiratory care [RC]. The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to measure students' perception of the RC educational environment. Based on the literature review and an assessment of content validity by multiple focus groups of RC educationalists, potential items of the instrument relevant to RC educational environment construct were generated by the research group. The initial 71 item questionnaire was then field-tested on all students from the 3 RC programs in Saudi Arabia and was subjected to multi-trait scaling analysis. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess internal consistency reliabilities. Two hundred and twelve students [100%] completed the survey. The initial instrument of 71 items was reduced to 65 across 5 scales. Convergent and discriminant validity assessment demonstrated that the majority of items correlated more highly with their intended scale than a competing one. Cronbach's alpha exceeded the standard criterion of >0.70 in all scales except one. There was no floor or ceiling effect for scale or overall score. This instrument is the first assessment tool developed to measure the RC educational environment. There was evidence of its good feasibility, validity, and reliability. This first validation of the instrument supports its use by RC students to evaluate educational environment