Nursing in Oman

The Royal Hospital In Muscat Oman

August 1998, I was hired to work as a Labor and Delivery room nurse in the Royal Hospital in Muscat,Oman.
The hospital serves all the people of the region not just the Royal Family (there is a special Royal Suite for the Royal Family). The Royal Hospital is an acute tertiary hospital established in 1987.
It was one of the milestones in the development of comprehensive health services in Oman.
In 1998, almost 90% of nurses were expatriates from the Philippines,India ,SriLanka,Malaysian,Egyptians and Sudanis.The Chief nurse was an Irish.Omanization (the training and hiring of Omani citizens) had just started.The hospital has its own housing for nurses and other expatriates.

The  recreational facilities of the hospital  swimming pools,tennis courts, squash courts and super markets. These are available for all staff to use for free. These are provided not only as a way for the staff to maintain a healthy lifestyle but as an added incentive for staff recruitment. For this nursing placement all utilities, housing, food, medical and dental were included as part of my contract.

Due to the large number of expatriates (truly an international staff), the hospital uses English in most if not all of the daily operations in running the hospital. Most patients are Arabic speaking and very few can speak English. Many nurses have been at the hospital for so long that they will act as an interpreter for new nurses who can not speak Arabic.Again,the majority of nurses in the hospital were Filipinos followed by Indians.

In 2001 a recruiting agency was in Oman conducting interviews for the United Kingdom (England) and Ireland. Many Filipino Nurses were interviewed, several were hired and deployed very quickly. I was one of the lucky ones, ending my Royal hospital employment and given another opportunity to work in yet another country.