67.5% of nurses in Lebanon plan to leave their profession because of working hours and poor career prospects

An Nahar newspaper published a report on a study carried out by the American University of Beirut focusing on the crisis within the nursing profession in Lebanon.  The research was conducted by the Faculty of Health Sciences and managed by Dr. Fadi Al-Jardali, in collaboration with Rafic Al-Hariri Nursing Faculty.
The research covered 69 hospitals and 1783 respondents, all of whom are nurses.  Of these, 67.5% indicated that they intend to change their work, whilst 37.5% noted that they plan to leave the country and 63.3% to leave the hospital where they are presently practicing.  30% of those intending to travel also plan on abandoning their profession.  According to the research, nurses are the least satisfied with their salaries and benefits as well as with their career opportunities and face challenges in balancing work and family life. Dissatisfaction appears to be the cause of nurses’ intention to leave their work.  Respondents noted that their work environment is not motivating, that harsh work conditions and inadequate organizational support constitute some of the main challenges that they face.  
For their part, the administrators of 76  hospitals, from the total of hospitals covered by the study, noted that the reason why nurses are considering leaving their jobs include low salaries and intensive working hours as well as marriage in the case of women nurses who tend to leave their profession to take care of their children.  Hospital administrators suggested adopting a number of strategies to deal with the crisis namely increasing salaries, setting up staff development programmes, introducing incentives and bonuses, and adopting flexible hours.

For more studies about nurses in Lebanon check the previous article published on WEEPortal on 13/12/2012 titled: 62% of nurses in Lebanon suffer from violence and verbal abuse
Source: Al-Nahar 8 May 2013