Dear Editor,
We read the article by Shubayr et al. titled ‘Assessment of job satisfaction, lifestyle behaviours, and occupational burnout symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic among radiologic technologists in Saudi Arabia’.1 The article discusses an important issue in Saudi Arabia, where the country works hard toward the Saudization (Saudi Nationalisation) of healthcare professionals. The Saudi Arabian Government supported Saudi nationals with educational scholarships, financial incentives, and training funding to motivate Saudization. Some reports have stated that the number of expatriates in Saudi Arabian healthcare sectors is more than 53%.2 However, the work of Shubayr et al. overlooks such important sociodemographic information, namely the nationality of participants. As shown in their study, among other factors, compensation emerged as the most powerful determinant of job satisfaction. It is our opinion that expatriates/non-nationals often get less compensation and incentives than Saudi nationals, which may impact the study results and are worth further consideration and discussion. Additionally, we have previously promoted the debate of establishing a professional body to represent radiographers/radiologic technologists and increase funding for postgraduate to encourage advanced practice for radiographers.3
Funding
NA.
Authors’ contributions
All authors participated in the project development, data collection, and manuscript writing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
IRB statement
Study approved by institutional review board.
Conflict of interest
None.
References
- 1.Shubayr N., Faraj H., Hurbush M., Khormi M., Alyami A., Majrashi N. Radiography Assessment of job satisfaction , lifestyle behaviors , and occupational burnout symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic among radiologic technologists in Saudi Arabia. Radiography. 2022;28(4):1087–1092. doi: 10.1016/j.radi.2022.07.015. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- 2.Al-Anezi F.M., Alrajhi S., Al-Anezi N.M., Alabbadi D.M.A., Almana R. 2020 19th international symposium on distributed computing and applications for business engineering and science. 2020. A review of healthcare system in Saudi Arabia; pp. 318–322. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
- 3.Abuzaid M.M., Elshami W., McConnell J., Baird M. Changing the model of radiography practice in the UAE: a snapshot of a profession in transition. Radiography. 2020;27(1):54–58. doi: 10.1016/j.radi.2020.05.014. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]