Abstract
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia invests tremendous governmental resources to support the annual Hajj season, including providing free world-class healthcare for all visiting pilgrims. Nurses from around the Kingdom are encouraged to work at Makkah during this period. These nurses come from different cultural backgrounds and provide care for pilgrims from around the world. The study utlized descriptive phenomenology design. A total of 11 transcultural nurses were interviewed. A thematic analysis was performed to understand the lived experience of the transcultural nurses participating in the Hajj for the first time. Five themes emerged. These included serving with satisfaction; a supportive and fair system; professional and personal values; difference, and difficulties and problems. This is the first study of transcultural nurses’ experiences of providing nursing care to pilgrims during the Hajj. The results highlight transcultural nurses’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of providing care during the Hajj and potential strategies to improve preparation and care quality.
Similar content being viewed by others
![](https://media.springernature.com/w215h120/springer-static/image/art%3Aplaceholder%2Fimages/placeholder-figure-springernature.png)
References
Aboul-Enein, F. (2002). Personal contemporary observations of nursing care in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Nursing, 8, 228–230.
Abudari, G., Hazeim, H., & Ginete, G. (2016). Caring for terminally ill Muslim patients: Lived experiences of non-Muslim nurses. Palliative and Supportive Care, 14, 599–611.
Alexis, O., Vydelingum, V., & Robbins, I. (2007). Engaging with a new reality: experiences of overseas minority ethnic nurses in the NHS. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 16(12), 2221–2228. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.02080.x.
Alligood, M. R., & Marriner-Tomey, A. (2010). Nursing theorists and their work. Maryland Heights, MO: Mosby/Elsevier.
Almutairi, A., & McCarthy, A. (2015). Understanding cultural competence in a multicultural nursing workforce: Registered nurses’ experience in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 26(1), 16–23.
Alosaimi, D., Dyson, S., & Anthony, D. (2013). A phenomenological study of non-Muslim nurses’ experiences of caring for Muslim patients in Saudi Arabia. International Journal of Arts & Sciences., 6(2), 637–646.
Alzahrani, F., & Kyratsis, Y. (2017). Emergency nurse disaster preparedness during mass gatherings: A cross-sectional survey of emergency nurses’ perceptions in hospitals in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. British Medical Journal Open, 7, e013563. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-.
Avendano, N. (2018). The road to healing: Pilgrimage and the Vietnam War in let their spirits dance. Confluencia-Revista Hispanica de Cultura y Literatura, 34(1), 104–114.
Betancourt, D. (2015). Madeleine Leininger and the transcultural theory of nursing. The Downtown Review, 2(1), 1–7.
General Authority for Statistics. (2017). Hajj statistics. Retrieved on March 11, 2018 from https://hajmap.stats.gov.sa/hajmap/haj_1438.pdf.
Giorgi, A. (2012). The descriptive phenomenological psychological method. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, 47(1), 3–12.
Hajj Health Services. (2018). Ministry of Health Portal. Retrieved on March 17, 2018 from https://www.moh.gov.sa/en/eServices/Hajj/Pages/default.aspx.
Health Conditions for Travelers to Saudi Arabia for the Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj). (2016). Weekly Epidemiological Record/Health Section of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, 91(26–27), 331–335. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.sdl.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselc&AN=edselc.2-52.0-84984549626&site=eds-live.
Husserl, E., & Moran, D. (2012). Ideas general introduction to pure phenomenology. London: Routledge.
Johnson, G. (2018). Advancing the Nursing Profession. Pelican News, 74(2), 1–3.
Liou, Shwu-Ru, & Cheng, Ching-Yu. (2011). Experiences of a Taiwanese nurse in the United States. Nursing Forum, 46(2), 102–109.
Motahari, A., & Behnam, R. (2019). A review of the functions of religion as a component in securing the family base. Basic Education College Magazine For Educational & Humanities Sciences, 42, 574–584.
Parker, S. (2010). The Hajj: A constant travel destination amidst changing times. Professional Nursing Today, 14(3), 24–30.
Prosen, M. (2015). Introducing transcultural nursing education: Implementation of transcultural nursing in the postgraduate nursing curriculum. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, 174, 149–155.
Van Rooyen, D., Telford-Smith, C. D., & Strümpher, J. (2010). Nursing in Saudi Arabia: Reflections on the experiences of South African nurses. Health SA Gesondheid, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v15i1.500.
The Saudi Ministry of Health (MOH). (2016). Health Statistics Annual Book. Retrieved from https://www.moh.gov.sa/en/Ministry/Statistics/book/Documents/Statistical-Yearbook-1437H.pdf.
Warfield, H. A., Baker, S. B., & Foxx, S. B. P. (2014). The therapeutic value of pilgrimage: A grounded theory study. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 17(8), 860–875.
Zhong, Y., McKenna, L., & Copnell, B. (2017). What are Chinese nurses’ experiences whilst working overseas? A narrative sco** review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 74, 101–111.
Funding
This research project was supported by a grant from the “Research Center of the Female Scientific and Medical Colleges,” Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors report no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Falatah, R., Almansour, L., Alsolami, A. et al. Transcultural Nurses’ Caring for Pilgrims for the First Time During Hajj Season in Saudi Arabia. J Relig Health 60, 232–245 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01038-z
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-020-01038-z