Saudi Arabia, Part 2

JEDDAH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—Between “Saudi Arabia, Part 1,” posted 31 March, and this entry, I have been home to Hull, visited Dublin for one night to give a lecture at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was in Edinburgh for three nights, and now I have been in Riyadh for a week. This post comes from the Crowne Plaza Jeddah, a 90-minute flight from Riyadh, where I have retreated for the weekend (Friday and Saturday).

My Facebook memory told me this morning that it is, to the day, exactly one year since I was last here. I need this break, because it has been a hectic week with teaching, preparation for teaching, and meetings. I spent a day at the Female Student Campus of King Saud University holding consultations and teaching students who are pursuing their master’s degree in nursing. I visited King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre to arrange for my day of teaching there next week, and one evening I visited the British ambassador's residence for a function organised by another UK university, the University of Dundee, where I know colleagues well. A farcical taxi journey caused me to miss the address by British Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Simon Collis, CMG, but I caught talks given by the Dundee staff.

Janice Rattray, University of Dundee, and
Ahmad Aboshaiqah, King Saud University.

I was very pleased to see Janice Rattray, PhD, RN, who is also working here this week. The last time I met her was a year ago in the first-class lounge of King Khalid Airport, Riyadh when we were both leaving Saudi Arabia. I also had lunch with her next day in the sumptuous Ritz Carlton hotel.

The journey to the British embassy did not go well from the start. My driver was unavailable, so the hotel staff summoned a taxi. It was clear from the outset that the cabbie had no idea where the British embassy was, nor did he speak English. When getting into the taxi, however, my thought was, “How bad can this be?” Well, it got bad. He drove to the diplomatic area as directed, I think, by the hotel staff, and tried to drop me off at a British school. I had the upper hand, of course, as I still had the 50 Saudi riyal, the maximum taxi fare, in my pocket.

We proceeded to do a tour of the embassies, and when I spotted the Union Jack on a sign, I thought I was safe, but it transpired—thanks to a Dutch gentleman who was trying to hail a taxi outside the Belgian embassy—that this was not the side of the compound where the British ambassador lived. My poor taxi driver was almost as stressed as me and refused to move, even after instructions in Arabic from the guard at the Belgian embassy who, I’m sure, was watching the commotion with amusement. I goaded the driver to move, but he wouldn’t.

I was standing outside the car when another drew up beside us to ask the Dutch gentleman directions to the British embassy. The occupants were two ladies I had met last year, and they recognised me. “Dr. Roger,” they shouted. I did not recognise them, however, as they were wearing traditional Saudi female attire. I paid off my driver, invited the Dutch gentleman to that taxi—he declined—and I joined the ladies in their taxi. The story does not end there, but it would take too long to describe every detail of our two tours round the diplomatic area with me crying, “Stop!” when I correctly identified the proper drop-off point—to no avail the first time, but successfully the second time.

James Smith, founding editor,
Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Meantime, turning the clock back a few days, I was in Edinburgh to attend the UK’s Royal College of Nursing (RCN) International Nursing Research Conference 2016, which celebrated 100 years of the RCN, 60 years of academic nursing at the University of Edinburgh, and 40 years of Journal of Advanced Nursing. I was there to interview James P. Smith, DLitt (honoris causa), OBE, founding editor of the journal, and Alison Tierney, PhD, FRCN, CBE, former editor-in-chief. I also entertained them, along with former editor Jacqueline Fawcett, PhD, FAAN. Fawcett recalled a lunch with my wife Debbie and me, and our then 10-year-old son Charles that took place more than 10 years ago on a very cold Boston winter day. You can hear the interviews in this podcast.

Despite coming to Jeddah to rest, I will be meeting two former doctoral students: Wafaa Al-Johani, PhD, RN, and Ahlam Eidah Al-Zahrani, PhD, RN, who both now work at The College of Nursing, King Abdulaziz University. They invited me to lunch with their dean, Hasnah Erfan Banjar, PhD, RN. I also had dinner with John Sedgewick, RN, director of nursing education and Saudization, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre, and a doctoral student at the University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

I don’t know if will return relaxed and refreshed to Riyadh tomorrow, but I have enjoyed every minute of this short break. I have a busy week ahead before I submit Part 3 of this Saudi Arabia trilogy.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Return to Riyadh

RIYADH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia—Listening to “Brothers in Arms”—loud—on the Emirates Airline entertainment system as the Boeing 777 descended into King Khalid International Airport (KKIA), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, I brushed away several tears. During the First Gulf War, I used to listen to this haunting and emotional song on headphones to drown out the overhead roar of American B-52 bombers, accompanied by massive refuelling planes, as they took off from the military airport in Riyadh to rain down fire and death on forward lines of Iraqi troops.

The bombers were so laden with weaponry that they took off underfuelled. After takeoff, and before proceeding to the Kuwaiti border to lighten their loads, the bombers’ fuel tanks were topped off nearby, in midair, enabling them to proceed to their target and create “fields of destruction,” a phrase from Dire Straits’ song, “Brothers in Arms.” These takeoffs were always followed by the release of a Scud missile in our direction, to which we replied with a Patriot missile from the front gate of our compound. The sickening shockwave, as it broke the sound barrier at ground level, used to make my chest reverberate.

My first visit to Saudi Arabia was courtesy of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces in which I played a small role as a nursing officer in the Royal Army Medical Corps. This time, upon exiting the plane at the airport terminal, I recognised the underground car park where, a couple decades earlier, we had established a 1,000-bed military hospital and set up our evacuation ward. And on my journey home, I walked through shops and lounges where, more than 20 years before, we set up operating theatres and general wards in what was then a newly built, but deserted, building.

This visit was entirely peaceful. I was in Riyadh at the invitation of the General Directorate of Nursing Affairs at the Saudi Ministry of Health to address the Saudi International Conference of Excellence in Patient Care  (SIEPC 2013) on the topic of writing for publication. The conference was attended by “local” nurses from the Gulf states and Jordan, as well as Europeans, Australians, and Americans. The theme of the conference, ostensibly, was about hospitals in the region achieving Magnet status, but it was an opportunity to learn about nursing and, especially, nursing education in Saudi Arabia and Jordan. If the words “Europe” or “United Kingdom” had replaced “Saudi Arabia” or “Jordan” on the program, the discussion would have been much the same.

We share many of the same problems, such as shortages of nurses and nursing faculty, and the employment of immigrant nurses, with the Philippines being a major provider. One difference in Jordan from the rest of the world is the higher proportion of men in nursing, a remarkable 60 percent. It’s actually an issue they would like to address, as it is a symptom of very high unemployment among Jordanian men. There is a deliberate strategy in Saudi Arabia toward “Saudi-ization”—the education, training, and employment of Saudi nationals in a range of professions—including nursing. The initiative is still, however, in its early days.

Meantime, many Saudi nurses visit the United Kingdom and North America to pursue master’s degrees and doctoral education. I have personally benefitted from this. I was met at the airport by Mansour Al-Yami, in full Arab dress, whose studies I supervised at the University of Sheffield. Worth following on Twitter, Al-Yami is involved in his role at the Ministry of Health in recruiting nurses to Saudi’s workforce. Soon, he defends his doctoral thesis in Sheffield.

Yours Truly with Mansour Al-Yami, former student of
mine who is now at the Saudi Ministry of Health.

At the fabulous Four Seasons Hotel, I had dinner with Professor James Ware, director, Medical Education and Postgraduate Studies, the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, along with Wafaa Al-Johani, who works in nursing education in Jeddah. Al-Johani is one of my former doctoral students, and she made the journey especially to see me.

Wafaa Al-Johani, one of my former doctoral students.

My time in Saudi has been informative, enjoyable and, as I alluded to above, moving. I have three children and a future son-in-law in the military. One daughter returns from Afghanistan soon; she was preceded by her fiancé. Her older sister, a nursing officer in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, leaves for Afghanistan next week. My daughters complete four generations of Watsons who have gone to war.

I often end these entries on a light note, related to my current location or next flight (Rome in May, as it happens), but I must end this one with a rhetorical question: Will the madness of war ever end?

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.