Exploring the Lived Experience of Nurses’ Work–Life Balance Among Expatriate Nurses in Saudi Arabia

Work–life balance remains a challenging issue for nurses across the globe and necessitates a deeper understanding. Despite the growing research studies on work–life balance in nurses, most focused on certain variables of work–life balance without exploring how nurses experience work–life balance. Similarly, researchers have called for healthcare organizations to put in place policies, programs, and initiatives to improve work–life balance in nurses (Rony et al., 2023). An understanding of how nurses experience work–life balance could enhance support for nurses, especially those who work in private hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The research question that guided this study was “What are the lived experiences of work–life balance among medical-surgical expatriate nurses working in a private hospital in Saudi Arabia?” A qualitative research approach using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to explore the nurses’ complexities of work–life balance. An email was sent to the manager of the medical-surgical unit, explaining the research and the intent. The manager of the medical-surgical unit distributed the study information to all the nurses and provided my contact details for those willing to participate. Interested participants contacted me directly and independently to be part of the study. Seven female expatriate nurses from the medical-surgical department of Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare were identified through purposive sampling and participated in the research. Data were collected through semi-structured one-to-one interviews and analyzed using the six-step IPA process to create themes. The data analysis process was assisted by the data management software NVivo. Five major themes were created from the analysis of the narratives of the participants: ideal vs. real work–life balance of expatriate nurses, layers of sacrifice of expatriate nurses, expatriate nurses' experience of work–life balance, what enhances work–life balance, and the effect of work–life imbalance. The major sub-themes created included the reality that the scale of work is higher, the impact of cultural diversity, the misconception of time-off, social isolation and emptiness, as well as coping strategies. The findings from the participants highlighted what expatriate nurses wanted such as flexible scheduling, reduced working week hours, and social connections, which will enable healthcare leaders and management to develop strategies to support work–life balance for nurses. This research showed that expatriate nurses in Saudi Arabia face complex challenges when trying to navigate between work and personal life which can potentially affect their social, mental, and physical health. The findings of this study provide a strong basis for future research on the study of work–life balance of other nursing specialties and expatriate workers in the hospital. Additional studies may include the use of interventional studies to address work–life balance among expatriate nurses. Interventional studies could also be conducted to evaluate the effect of work–life balance initiatives. Likewise, future studies may include a comparison of the experience of expatriate nurses working in Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare to other health organizations in the Eastern Region, and in other Provinces in Saudi Arabia as well as among the other GCC countries. Future research can extend the study of work–life balance to include other expatriate nurses in other nursing specialties, other expatriate workers in the hospital, such as physicians, social workers, pharmacists, and physiotherapists.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Nursing (MN)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Nursing

Grantor

Nursing

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Asuni, Taibat

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jackson, Jennifer

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Salami, Oluwabukola Oladunni
• Boulton, Tiffany Nicole
• Seneviratne, Cydnee Christine

• work–life balance
• expatriate nurses
• sacrifices
• overtime
• cultural diversity
• qualitative research
• Saudi Arabia
• work–life imbalance
• Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/50951

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ucalgary.scholaris.ca:1880/123782