Aims: To identify the roles and activities of nurses, including advanced practice nursing (APN), and to determine nursing practice patterns across health facilities in Saudi Arabia.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 207 nurses working in the Saudi health sector between November 2021 and March 2022 through an online questionnaire. The Advanced Practice Role Delineation tool was used to measure and delineate nursing practice patterns and activities. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology reporting guidelines.
Results: Findings showed that participants, regardless of their current role, reported high scores across all domains of practice. The highest average score was obtained for the Clinical Care domain. Except for the leadership domain, findings showed that those reported working as advanced practice nurses had higher average scores across all domains than those working as staff nurses or being in managerial/administrative positions. There were significant differences in the average Clinical Care scores between advanced practice nurses and staff nurses.
Conclusion: Advanced practice nursing roles and activities are being practised in Saudi Arabia; however, there is no clear delineation of these roles and activities according to a unified and national-level APN scope of practice.
Impacts: Advanced practice nursing roles are evolving in Saudi Arabia; however, no study has examined the existing patterns of APN activities in Saudi Arabia. This study highlights the practice patterns of advanced practice nurses and adds to the international evidence base on the need for delineating APN activities under a unified scope of practice. The findings of this study are beneficial to practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders as well as the legislative and regulatory bodies.
Patient or public contribution: No patient or public contribution.
Keywords: advanced practice nursing; nurse's role; role delineation; scope of practice.
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.