Women in Saudi secondary school EFL textbooks: a critical study of women's empowerment as enshrined in the Saudi Vision 2030

Since the launch of the Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia has undergone significant economic and social reforms in order to move away from the country's reliance on oil and toward a more diverse and sustainable economy. One of the important chapters in this endeavour is the empowerment of Saudi women whereby they are to be given opportunities equal to men. Against this new paradigm, this study investigates whether Vision 2030's transformative efforts surrounding women's empowerment are reflected in the country's EFL textbooks, or whether the traditional representation of Saudi women has remained unchanged. The analytical focal point is the pictorial representation of Saudi women in six textbooks which form part of the Mega Goal series, and which are used to teach English in Saudi secondary schools. The analysis examined the representations of females from three different angles: the percentage of appearances in the textbooks from the total human pictorials; the social roles and occupations depicted, and the activities that they are engaged in. Analysis along all three of these angles revealed that there is a remarkable imbalance between the depiction of men and women in these textbooks, in favour of men. The study concludes that the Mega Goal series' EFL textbooks fall short of providing a realistic representation of Saudi women and fails to include representative depictions of women who, like their male counterparts, have occupied senior roles and prestigious positions in the country. This conclusion points to the need to include such representation in EFL textbooks, so that the role of women as envisaged in Saudi's Vision 2030 complies with the Vision's determination to provide equal opportunities for both men and women.

Cardiovascular Disease in Saudi Arabia: Facts and the Way Forward

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain a major health concern globally. While some risk factors for CVDs are non-modifiable, other determinants like obesity, hypertension, type-2 diabetes and dyslipidemia can be mitigated by a wide plethora of measures to control CVD morbidity and mortality. Those determinants have been on the rise in Saudi Arabia, exacerbated by sedentary lifestyle. The Saudi Vision 2030 aims to reduce CVD clinical and economic burden and to scale up vitality and longevity; in a new era of comprehensive healthcare. From a health economics standpoint, CVDs entail a burden on healthcare systems directly through expenditure and indirectly through years living with the disease, low productivity, premature morbidity and mortality. This manuscript reviews current CV health and unmet needs in Saudi Arabia, discusses G20 countries' initiatives on primary prevention: public health measures, awareness programs; and proposes national registries and digital solutions to facilitate population-specific research, improve CV surveillance and alleviate CVD burden in Saudi Arabia.

Empirical Evidence of Environmental Technologies, Renewable Energy and Tourism to Minimize the Environmental Damages: Implication of Advanced Panel Analysis

The motivation behind this research is to investigate the determinants of the ecological footprint in MENA countries and find appropriate solutions. We updated the STIRPAT model and applied sophisticated panel techniques to data from 1996 to 2020. According to the findings, economic expansion along with urbanization and tourism is to blame for these countries' huge environmental footprints. In addition, when it comes to environmental degradation remedies, environmental innovation and the use of renewable energy play an important role in minimizing these environmental externalities. The results of post Saudi Vison 2030 analysis confirmed the significance of urban population and renewable energy in minimizing the environmental footprint. In light of the findings, it is advised that policymakers should revise the legislative framework to attract not only private sector investment, but also foreign investment to utilize the full potential of renewable energy generation.

Satisfaction of patients with health care services in tertiary care facilities of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional approach

As part of Saudi Vision 2030, the country's healthcare system is undergoing a significant makeover, with accessibility and effectiveness serving as the benchmarks for measuring patient care quality. This study's goal was to ascertain the degree of patient satisfaction with the medical care and services received in Riyadh's tertiary care facilities. The PSQ-18 (Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire-18), a standardized validated questionnaire including areas of "overall satisfaction," "technical quality," "interpersonal aspect," "communication," "financial aspect," "time spent with the doctor," and "accessibility and convenience," was used in this cross-sectional study on 384 patients of two tertiary care facilities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, over a 6-month period. The degree to which sociodemographic characteristics and components of patient satisfaction are correlated was assessed using binary and multiple regression analysis. When the P-value was < 0.05, the results were considered significant and were presented as adjusted odds ratios (AOR). To ascertain how each PSQ-18 subscale affected other subscales, a Pearson Correlation analysis was conducted. The overall degree of satisfaction with all 18 items was 73.77%. The financial component received a rating of 81% compared to 77% for general satisfaction. Technical quality (75%) was followed by accessibility and convenience (73.5%), communication (73%), and interpersonal elements (72%). At 68%, the time spent in the doctor's domain received the lowest rating. The odds of satisfaction were increased by 3.87 times, 3.45 times, and 3.36 times among those who are employed, qualified by university education, and married compared to unemployed (P-value = 0.018), less qualified (P-value = 0.015) and singles (P-value = 0.026), respectively. The younger age group also made 1.78 times more of a difference in higher satisfaction ratings. The general satisfaction domain showed a positive association with other areas. Participants who were satisfied with the communication and accessibility and convenience domains of healthcare providers were the only ones who were typically satisfied with the domain of doctor time spent. The study's findings could act as a benchmark for Saudi Arabia's healthcare services as well as a starting point for quality assurance procedures.

Evaluation of wind power generation projects to reduce air pollution using multi-criteria decision-making methods in Saudi Arabia

Currently, Saudi Arabia has very limited renewable energy generation capacity, as most of the country's electricity sector is dependent on cheap fossil fuels. However, in recent years, the Saudi government has announced a national development program called "the Saudi Vision 2030," whereby the country intends to increase the share of renewable energies in its total power generation to 20% by 2030. This research is aimed on the possibility of developing wind farms in Saudi Arabia's Al-Jawf area, which is known to be rich in wind sources. The potential of wind energy in the region was examined in the first phase of the research, which focused at the environmental, economic, and technical aspects. For this goal, the two-parameter Weibull function was used to model wind energy in the area. The economic assessment was performed in terms of the Levelized Cost of Energy and payback period. Multi-criteria decision-making approaches were employed in the second phase of the study to determine the most proper sites for harvesting wind energy in the study region based on eight factors including technical, economic, environmental, and social aspects. The most proper site for wind farms was identified by the combined use of Stepwise Weight Assessment Ratio Analysis and Weighted Aggregated Sum Product Assessment. The results showed that the most proper site for locating wind farms in the study area is the city of Al-Qurrayyat, where, using 1 MW turbines, it will be possible to produce 2357 MWh/year of electricity at a cost of 0.092 $/kWh, resulting in a payback period of 8.1 years. From the environmental perspective, wind power generation in Al-Qurrayyat will result in 1124.15 ton/year of CO₂ emissions reduction.

University social responsibility under the influence of societal changes: Students' satisfaction and quality of services in Saudi Arabia

Universities contribute to shaping the identity of a nation with their major university social responsibility (USR) in addition to their academic purposes and corporate strategies. In Saudi Arabia with Vision 2030, universities are facing a transformation in adapting to the societal changes and implementing a socially responsible management, considering the satisfaction of their most important stakeholders (i.e., the students) and the quality of services offered to them. This study aims to explore how USR fulfills the societal changes in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of university students in addition to inspecting USR's relationships with the students' satisfaction and the quality of services offered to them. A self-report study was conducted with 350 undergraduate students in the Faculty of Social Sciences in a Social Work program at a University in the Western region of Saudi Arabia. An inside-outside (I-O) map of USR was applied to investigate the relationships among USR's aspects. The study results demonstrated a moderate level of agreement by students toward the university's fulfillment of its USR, quality of services offered to them, and their satisfaction. In contrast, the results of a regression analysis revealed that all USR aspects could explain only 13% of the students' satisfaction. Legal responsibilities, among all USR aspects, exhibited the highest influence on students' satisfaction. Gender differences existed in favor of female students' perceptions toward the university's fulfillment of its USR. The I-O map provided interesting insights to interpret the correlations among all USR aspects under the influence of societal changes that have occurred under Saudi Vision 2030.

Linking nurses' job security to job satisfaction and turnover intention during reform and privatization: A cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

Reforming health care systems can influence the workers. Among the aspects that could be influenced are the perception of job security, job satisfaction and turnover intention. However, nurses' perception on job security, job satisfaction and turnover intention during health care reform and privatization is a topic yet to be explored.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the link between job security, job satisfaction and turnover intention during the reform and privatization of a health care system.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey design was utilized in this study.

METHODS

The survey was composed of sociodemographic items, global job satisfaction item, global turnover items and job security scale. Data were analysed using SPSS, and univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses tests were used.

RESULTS

Although job satisfaction partially mediated the association between job security and organisational turnover during health care reform, it completely mediated the association between job security and professional turnover intention.

CONCLUSIONS

Further research is needed to examine this finding.

IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

The findings of this study benefit nurse managers and leaders for their evidence-based management. Moreover, this study will help them focus on practices that satisfy the staff and improve the job security by improving the communication and work on changing the policy.