Why is the nursing profession looked down on in Saudi Arabia?

wow!.. I completely see the opposite of the other posters.. I think the nurses are respected here.. They are paid nicely and in great demand.. I have seen a load of british nurses coming in lately also.. .. I also havent seen any problems with the nurses and the religious men.. In fact, they'd prefer to have women nurses help their women folks than male nurses..

the shave the money to give them after death to the doctor

it is not looked down. however, some Saudis (religious police) are very Conservative and they don't like to see women working in mixed atmosphere.

Nursing is not looked down on. The Muttawa(religious police) don't like the idea of women interacting with men in a hospital as men and women aren't supposed to interact and mix with each other in Islam.

From what I have seen, and this is just my opinion, it isn't the nursing profession that is looked down on. The problem is the prejudice against some of the different nationalities who are nurses. Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, etc. Many Saudi people look down on those people and treat them badly no matter what occupation they are in. They treat them like maids, and not trained medical professionals. As far as Saudi nurses go, they have a lLLLLOOOONNNNGGGG way to go before they learn professionalism, and a good bedside manner. They are poorly trained and don't respect their patients' confidentiality.

i agree with raven, other nationalities are conquering this profession since long tim back (philipinas) especially, but with the new saudiazation procedures i guess within the period of 2 yrs we will find more demand on arab nurses, one other thins is the price, for the hospitals nurses do occupy more than 60 % of the labor of the hospital, so increasing the salaries means a big loss to the organization, so maybe this is another reason.

we do have projects in the armed forces hospitals around the kingdom, in riaydh i noticed a larger no. of saudi female nurses (they were hot btw), but here in jeddah its not as much as riyadh.

anyways hope it gets better....

Because the only ones that are injured and hospitalized would be the enemy infidels or the suicide bomb terrorists who miserably failed their missions. Either way, youre either nursing an enemy of the state or a man deemed to be without honor by his own society.