Job insecurity, fear of litigation, and mental health among expatriate nurses

Abstract

The objective was to assess whether job insecurity and fear of litigation were correlates of depression, anxiety, and stress among expatriate nurses in Saudi Arabia. The participants included 977 expatriate nurses working in Al-Qassim, Saudi Arabia who completed an online survey that assessed depression, anxiety, and stress (using DASS-21) as well as demography, lifestyle, and job characteristics. Mean age was 32 years and 60% of nurses were from India/Pakistan. Twenty-four percent of nurses reported job insecurity, and 18% reported a fear of litigation. Severe depression, anxiety, and stress were significantly higher among nurses who always felt insecure about their job (compared to never) and among those who always feared litigation (compared to never). We concluded that job insecurity and fear of litigation were significant correlates of severe depression, anxiety, and stress among expatriate nurses.

Keywords:

• Job insecurity
• fear of litigation
• nurses
• depression
• stress

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the administrators and the staff of General Directorate of the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the Al-Qassim region for facilitating the distribution of this survey to the nurses working in area hospitals. We are also grateful to the nurses who took the time to participate in this study. The authors also thank Ms. Erin Strotheide for her editorial contributions to this manuscript.

Conflict of interests

The authors declare that they received no support from any organization for the submitted work, and that they had no financial relationships with any organization that might have an interest in the submitted work.

Informed consent

An informed consent was placed at the beginning of the survey questionnaire. The nurses who agreed (‘yes’ to informed consent) filled out the survey. No patients were involved in the study.

Data sharing

The authors agree to share the data set upon request.

Ethics committee approval

This cross-sectional study was approved by the Qassim Ethics Research Committee.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Qassim University (Buraydah, Saudi Arabia), represented by the Deanship of Scientific Research, [grant number 1536-med-2016-1-12-S] during the academic year00201437 AH/2016 AD.

Notes on contributors

JS and NS had the original idea and developed the study protocol. HH, ARM coordinated the fieldwork with the MOH. MT and RM created the electronic survey and maintained the database. NS performed the analysis and JS drafted the initial manuscript. All authors contributed to the preparation of manuscript writing and approved its final version.