The Ministry of Health prohibits assigning nurses to work outside their specialization and prevents dual professions

The Ministry of Health issued a strongly worded circular to all health facilities, prohibiting the assignment of nursing and midwifery staff to any administrative or technical tasks outside the scope of their approved professional practices, in an organizational step aimed at raising the efficiency of the health sector and ensuring patient safety.

This move comes in the context of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to develop the healthcare system in line with the objectives of the Health Sector Transformation Program, one of the pillars of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, which focuses on improving the quality of health services and raising operational efficiency, by ensuring that medical and nursing staff are free to focus on their primary tasks in patient care.

Regulatory framework and prevention of dual professions

The Ministry's directives were based directly on Article Twelve of the Health Professions Practice Law, which explicitly prohibits dual practice. The Ministry emphasized the absolute necessity of adhering to the rule that a healthcare practitioner should not practice more than one health profession, or combine one health profession with another that conflicts with their primary work, in order to ensure complete professional focus and the safety of medical procedures provided to patients.

The ministry stressed that the professional record and license are the sole and decisive criteria for determining the powers and privileges of the health practitioner, considering that any violation of these standards is a clear violation that warrants legal punishment.

Defining responsibilities and powers

The ministry precisely defined the permissible scope of nursing and midwifery work to prevent any erroneous administrative interpretations, and the powers included:

• For nursing: working in clinical departments (inpatient rooms), outpatient clinics, emergency departments, specialized centers, endoscopy clinics, lithotripsy, interventional radiology, wound care, in addition to nursing, quality and training departments in health clusters.
• For midwifery: monitoring pregnant women, postpartum care, breastfeeding support, and participation in forensic medicine, school and home health clinics.

Sanctions and expected impact

The ministry warned that practicing any healthcare activity without a license or exceeding one's scope of practice except in cases of extreme necessity will subject violators and facilities to legal accountability. It also mandated that departments immediately rectify the status of nursing staff and remove any administrative or clerical assignments that divert their efforts.

This decision is expected to help bridge the nursing workforce gap by returning them to their natural positions next to the patient, thus enhancing the speed of response to medical cases and reducing professional errors resulting from distractions in side tasks.