Riyadh – Jeddah – Al Ahsa

Strategic Plan
2017-2022

Transforming Vision into Reality

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 1

College’s Message
We, at College of Nursing (CON), recognize that strategic planning enhances progress
and advancement in education and knowledge. The college’s educational, research and
community activities will ensure that our mission remains responsive and focused on
community needs.
For CON to fulfill its mission, we believe it is imperative to be strategically agile in
keeping pace with the dynamic, demanding and competitive nature of the national and global
environment.
Driven by the ultimate aim to position the College of Nursing graduates in leading roles
in the today dynamic health care delivery system, this strategic plan was developed with a
unique value that ensured constructive assessment of our current status and accountability in
relation to what we have pledged to accomplish.
We have been fortunate with the engagement and commitment of many individuals
who have contributed to the development of this plan: CON faculty, staff and valued students,
our Ministry of National Guard Heath Affairs (MNGHA) stakeholders in the Nursing Services
and clinical sites, university administrators, national and international visitors and reviewers.
Multiple initial strategy sessions were held to examine compliance with national and
international quality standards for strategic planning. Deliberation continued until consensus
among all stakeholders about the plan had emerged. Our team continues to invest time, energy
and effort in refining and reviewing college-wide activities and processes for continuous
improvement of teaching, learning, scholarship and service.
Finally, we would like to extend our appreciation and gratitude to His Excellency, the
President of King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences; as well as to the Vice
Presidents of Educational Affairs, Postgraduate Education and Quality Management Affairs,
for their continuous support and guidance. Our special thanks to College of Nursing’s faculty,
students and staff for their innovative contributions and passion for excellence.

Dr. Haya Al Fozan Dr. Tagwa Omer Dr. Samia Al Furaikh

Dean, CON-R, KSAU-HS Dean, CON-J, KSAU-HS Dean, CON-A, KSAU-HS

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 2

Introduction
College of Nursing (CON) was established by Royal Decree number 18226 dated
11/9/1422H (2001). The College of Nursing – Riyadh (CON-R) branch was established in
March 2002 and is located in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia. The College of Nursing –
Jeddah (CON-J) branch was opened in September 2006 and it is located in the Western Region.
The College of Nursing – Al Ahsa (CON-A) branch was opened in September 2008 and it is
located in the Eastern Region.
Initially, College of Nursing offered the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). Then
the postgraduate program, Master of Science in Nurse Midwifery, was introduced. It
implements contemporary curricula designed to meet the best educational standards through
collaborative work with leading national and international nursing education institutions.
Curricula for the nursing programs have been benchmarked with reputable universities in North
America. It is expected within the next five years to have more postgraduate programs.
Highly qualified, multicultural faculty and staff have been recruited from different
countries. Several Saudi scholarship recipients were sent abroad to achieve postgraduate
degrees and have been appointed as faculty at College of Nursing.
At each campus, state of the art classroom, e-learning and clinical simulation
technologies enable College of Nursing to high quality education. Staff and students have
access to a digital, in addition, to a physical library. Clinical teaching and learning occur in
well-equipped clinical simulation laboratories as well as health care facilities. Clinical training
is offered in collaboration with MNGHA Medical Cities whereby students have access to in-
patient, ambulatory, primary and tertiary health care and community-based care settings. In
addition, collaboration have also been established to utilize clinical learning opportunities at
other health institutions.
College of Nursing render community services which is supported by the community
services unit. Scholarly inquiry is being facilitated by research committees supported by
functional student research units.
As of today, College of Nursing is proud to have more than 1700 qualified graduate
nurses who are fully equipped with knowledge and skills to be an essential part of Saudi Nurses
workforce. Within the coming four years, the college is expected to have more graduates from
1800 enrolled students in the BSN program in the three campuses. In addition, the college is
looking forward to the graduation of the first batch of the Master of Science in Nurse Midwifery
program by Fall 2017.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 3

KSAU-HS VISION KSAU-HS MISSION
To achieve global leadership in health KSAU-HS provides high quality health
professions education with commitment sciences education, health related
to excellence in research, patient care, research, and community services that
and community service. promote the health of society.

COLLEGE OF NURSING MISSION

College of Nursing provides high quality
nursing sciences education, research,
and community services that promote
the health of society.

CORE VALUES
Excellence: Quality Performance, Innovation and Creativity
Professionalism: Accountability, Responsibility, Commitment
and Respect of Islamic Values
Caring: Safe, Compassionate, Competent and Ethical Care
Diversity: Cultural Competency
Team work: Collaboration and Cooperation
Transparency: Clarity

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 4

 SWOT Analysis
The SWOT analysis is part of the strategic planning process. Specifically, SWOT is part of the
situation analysis of internal and external environment, where the organization determines
“Where We Are” and potential performance “Where We Want To Be”. Then, the Gap analysis
was conducted to help in transforming its vision into reality and to launch a comprehensive
plan to fill out the gap between the current state and desired state. As presented below, a flow
chart for the conducted SWOT analysis was developed.

Current state
2017 “Where We Are?”
Stakeholders
Surveys
S.W.O.T Focus groups
Self-study evaluation
Analysis report

S.W.O.T
Result
Gap

Mission
Strategic Goals
Vision

Action Plan

2022 Future state

“Where We Want to Be”

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 5

 SWOT Analysis

Strength Weaknesses
Internal Factors

S.W.O.T
External Factors
Opportunities Threats

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threat (SWOT) analysis is a useful planning

method that helps organizations to act proactively. In order to build a structured and well-
informed strategic plan for the College of Nursing, the Strategic Planning Task Force
Committee has conducted data collection at each campus (CON-R, CON-J, and CON-A) and
then the results were combined. The data was collected using five-Likert scale surveys, open
ended questions surveys, patients’ satisfaction surveys, students’ satisfaction surveys, and
focus groups. Different groups of the College of Nursing stakeholders were included such as
faculty members, academic administrators, administrative staff, undergraduate and post
graduate students. External stakeholders were also included such as alumni, field experience
staff, and employers. Based on the SWOT analysis, the internal factors (Strength and
Weaknesses) and external factors (Opportunities and Threat) are listed as follows:

Internal factors
A. Strengths
 King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences achieved
unconditional institutional accreditation from the National Commission for
Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA).
 Clear mission and goals that include high quality education, research, and
community services.
 Selecting of high performance students for admission
 High employment rate for College of Nursing graduates
 High demand for College of Nursing graduates in workforce market
 Employers’ satisfaction with graduates’ verbal communication skills, computer
literacy and delivery of cultural competent and customer friendly care.
 Established quality BSN curriculum validated by expert international reviewers.
 Qualified and dedicated national and international faculty and staff members.
 Professional development support and opportunities for faculty and staff
 Well-structured nursing internship program

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 6

  Official agreement with King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC) and other
health care organizations for students’ clinical trainings and internship program.
 Establishment of Nursing Clinical Teaching Unit (NCTU) to ensure that the
clinical setting is conducive for learning.
 Availability of effective students supporting resources such as student academic
advising and counselling, research, and physical and digital library.
 Establishment of Internal Quality Assurance System (IQAS) at Colleges of
Nursing
 Support for scholarly work for faculty and students’ publications, and
presentations in national and international conferences.
 Ratio of faculty to student is appropriate according to the international
benchmark.
 Offering Master of Science in Nurse Midwifery
 Utilization of up-to-date facilities, technologies and materials such as:
Blackboard and Student Information System (SIS)
 Creation of Faculty Dashboard
 Open door policy with the students, faculty and staff
 Program evaluation mechanisms implemented directly through progress test
and students’ assessment; and indirectly through internal and external peer
review and surveys.
 Recognition of outstanding achievement
 Faculty engagement in units, committees and decision-making

B. Weaknesses
 Limited field experience placements facilities and staff
 Limited accessibility of university recreational facilities for students
 Limited opportunities for clinical training for students in psychiatric course
 Inadequate faculty and staff lounge facility
 Prolonged process of recruitment of international faculty and staff
 Inadequate alumni tracking and involvement
 Inadequate Saudi faculty with PhD degree
 Failure to accommodate the increasing number of enrolled students within the
limited number of classes in shared building with other colleges in Al Ahsa.
 Lack of faculty retention strategy
 Inadequate food services with unsatisfactory variety and quality of food.
 Lack of independent review of the BSN courses
 Lack of OSCE lab
 Lack of well-structured career counselling

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 7

  Inadequate communication and limited access to students’ information in the
pre-professional phase
 Drop-out rate of students
 Students complete BSN program in more than the specified time (four years).

External Factors
A. Opportunities
 More venues and occasions available for marketing College of Nursing
programs and promote nursing profession and Saudi nurses.
 Availability of clinical, academic and administrative job opportunities.
 Opportunities for national and international accreditation.
 Wide range of community service needs that enhance students’ social
responsibility and enrich their learning experience.
 Benefits from wide range of community activities delivered by College of
Nursing
 Opportunities for partnership with international universities for scholarly work.
 Postgraduate programs in different nursing specialities.
 Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs (NGHA) Medical Cities with wide
range of hospitals and specialities.
 National and international research support services and funding agencies.
 More opportunities for students to be engaged in research activities.
 More opportunities for faculty members to be engaged in research activities,
including collaborative research.
 Opportunity for program expansion in response to the evolving health care
needs of society.

B. Threats
 Competitive external employment for faculty
 Competitive admission opportunities for students
 Competitive community services delivered by professional societies and non-
governmental organizations (NGOs).
 Hazy image of nursing profession by the community
 IT safety issues such as: cyber-attacks
 Inadequate nursing job classifications and career ladder
 Remote area of Al Ahsa with lack of attractive environment which may threat
the rate of students’ enrolment and faculty recruitment.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 8

 College of Nursing Strategic Goals and Initiatives/Projects
1. Bring College of Nursing national and international recognition by
Strategic Goal continuously enhancing academic nursing programs that create
competent nurses.
Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI
I. Ensure systematic  Periodic academic  Number of programs
academic programs programs review. curriculum committee
review. meetings per year.
 Number of independent
reviewer reports.
 Number of advisory
committee meeting.
 3.1 Student’s overall
evaluation on the quality of
their learning experiences at
the institution (Average rating
of 3.5 or above on a five-
point scale in an annual
survey final year students).
 Employers satisfaction with
graduates (Average rating of
3.5 or above on a five-point
scale in an annual survey).
 Automated monitoring of  Presence of automated system
student progress to monitor student progress
 Percentage of students
counselled Based on
automatic notification for the
first time per academic yr.
 Percentage of students
counselled Based on
automatic notification for the
second time per academic yr.
 Monitoring of  Percentage of achieved BSN
effectiveness of program learning outcomes.
teaching/learning and  Percentage of faculty who
assessment methods were peer reviewed.
 Percentage of faculty who
attended teaching /
assessment workshops.
 Average of graduate GPA
(3.5 or higher).
 Average of progress test
result.
 3.1. Student’s overall
evaluation on the quality of
their learning experiences at
the institution (Average rating

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 9

 of 3.5 or above on a five-
point scale in an annual
survey final year students).
 Stakeholder satisfaction of
graduates (Average rating of
3.5 or above on a five-point
scale in an annual survey.
 Percentage of Graduates’
licensure exam results.
 4.5. Proportion of students
entering undergraduate
programs who complete those
programs in specified time.
II. Expand academic  Expansion of postgraduate  Number of specialized
programs to include more programs in response to the postgraduate programs
specialized nursing needs of the market. offered at CON.
programs to meet society  4.10 Proportion of students
needs. entering post graduate
program who completed those
program in specified time.
 Employer satisfaction with
postgraduate performance.

 Enhance advisory  Number of advisory

committee engagement. committee meetings.
III. Enhance excellence and  Ensure integration of  Percentage of courses
opportunities in evidence evidence based nursing applying evidence based
based nursing practice in practice in nursing nursing practice in nursing
undergraduate and programs programs.
postgraduate nursing  Explore opportunities to  Utilization of central
programs. gain access to the central simulation lab.
simulation lab
 Continuous monitoring and  Percentage of courses
evaluation of field applying evidence based
experience. nursing practice in nursing
programs.
 Students’ overall evaluation
of field experience training.
 Faculty overall evaluation of
field experience training.
 Field staff overall evaluation
of field experience training.
 Periodic and structured  Students’ overall evaluation
monitoring of learning of learning resources.
resources and environment  Faculty overall evaluation of
learning resources
 7.2. Number of accessible
computer terminals per
student.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 10

  Communicate standardize  Number of interdisciplinary
interdisciplinary collaboration and agreements.
collaboration for the  Percentage of standardized
delivery of nursing units and related committees.
programs and scholarly
activities
 Offer scholarship  Percentage of offered
opportunities for BSN scholarship seats to the
graduates number of accepted scholars.

2. Strengthen nursing research and scholarly activities that are

Strategic Goal
nationally relevant and internationally competitive.
Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI
I. Align the College of  Maintain and foster the  Percentage of faculty who
Nursing research mission, orientation program about attended orientation sessions.
strategic goals, and Research Center bylaws,
policies and procedures policies and opportunities.
with the University.  Address national research  Number of research related to
priorities the national research
priorities.
 Encourage faculty to  Percentage of faculty who
publish in high impact published in journal with high
journals. impact factor.
 10.3. Proportion of full time
members of teaching staff
with at least one refereed
publication during the
previous academic year.
 10.4. Number of papers or
reports presented at academic
conferences during the recent
academic year.
II. Provide research support  Enhance utilization of
to faculty and students research supportive  Utilization percentage of
resources by students and research supportive resources.
faculty.
 Percentage of faculty
supported to present their
work per year.
 Maintain mentorship for  Percentage of junior faculty
graduate students and involved in research projects.
junior faculty in research.  Satisfaction of graduate
students and junior faculty on
mentorship program.
 Percentage of postgraduate
students who participated in
research projects

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 11

  Number of researches
published by undergraduate
students.
 Promote opportunities to  10.5. Research income from
identify and secure funding internal and external sources
resources for faculty and in the past year as a
students. proportion to the number of
full time teaching staff
members.
 Continue and expand  Number of student who
students and faculty attended the orientation
orientation program about program.
research opportunities and  Number of faculty who
research funding. attended the orientation
program.
 Motivate undergraduate  Number researches published
students to publish their by undergraduate students.
work.
III. Create opportunities for  Engage faculty in  Number of researches
collaborative research community directed directed to community.
research projects.
 Support and foster  Number of collaborative
collaborative research research projects among the
among the three nursing three nursing campuses.
campuses.
 Support joint authorship  Number of referred
between faculty and publication coauthored by
external authors. external researchers.

3. Facilitate College of Nursing involvement in services that

Strategic Goal promote community health and engagement in social
responsibility.
Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI
I. Continue and expand  Marketing and raising  Percentage of community
partnership between community awareness awareness events about
nursing students and about nursing programs. nursing programs and
community stakeholders profession.
to enhance social  Engage alumni in  Percentage of community
responsibility. community activities. activities with alumni
involvement.
 Conduct community  Number of attendees of
survey. community activity
participants.
II. Promote effective  Continue and foster  Satisfaction rate of
management of collaboration between community activity
community service in faculty and students in participants.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 12

 accordance with the providing community  Percentage of community
community service health services. activities delivered by college
strategy of KSAU-HS of nursing.
 Collaboration with and  11.1Proportion of full time
among Colleges of Nursing teaching and other staff
as well as with other actively engaged in
colleges community service activities.
 Percentage of community
activities delivered
collaboratively by the College
of Nursing in the three
campuses per year.
 Number of community
activities delivered
collaboratively with other
colleges per year.
 Establish and maintain  Number of agencies in
collaboration with collaboration with the College
community agencies of Nursing.
 Utilize social media to  Number of social media
announce/ educate and engagements.
interact with the  11.2. Number of community
community education programs provided as
a proportion of the number of
departments
 Identify the community  Number of activities based on
health needs community needs.
 Initiate community  Number of community
education through services delivered through
utilization of innovative innovative technology and
technology and simulation simulation.
III. Monitor and document  Create community service  Percentage of community
community services using dashboard / database. activities which utilized the
structured digital database.
database.

4. Enhance the College of Nursing internal quality assurance

Strategic Goal system to ensure the sustainability of quality assurance processes,
achieve the required accreditation in a timely manner.
Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI
I. Provide a functional  Optimize collaboration  Number of committee
structure for quality between the Quality meetings.
assurance and Assurance and Academic  3.1. Student’s overall
improvement in Accreditation (QAAA) evaluation on the quality of
compliance with IQAS Units of the three their learning experiences at
campuses and with the the institution (mean score of
Deanship of Quality 3.5 or above on a five-point
Management Affairs scale in an annual survey final
(DQMA) year students).
College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 13
  3.2 Proportion of courses in
which student evaluations
were conducted during the
year.
 Enhance the culture of  Percentage of faculty attending
quality assurance quality orientation sessions.
 Percentage of Staff attending
quality orientation sessions.
 Percentage ofstudent attending
quality orientation sessions
 Number of quality related
workshops.
 Percentage of faculty who
attended quality related
workshops.
II. Ensure that the targeted  Create KPI dashboard.  Finalize the KPI dashboard.
quality is being met,
exceeded, and/or  Maintain independent  Percentage of review
sustained using review recommendations
continuous assessment implemented.
and feedback.  Structure monitoring and  Percentage of achieved KPIs.
analyzing KPI periodically
III. Achieve timely  Ensure standardize action  Gain national accreditation for
accreditation by plan for national BSN program by 2018.
national and selected accreditation requirement
international
organizations at  Initiate process towards  Number of steps taken toward
College of Nursing international accreditation. initiation process of
program level. international accreditation.

5. Attract, recruit, and retain highly qualified faculty, and provide

Strategic Goal
opportunities for professional enhancement.

Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI

I. Intensify efforts through  Communicate with central  4.1. Ratio of students to
innovative approaches recruitment office to teaching staff (based on full
that recruit and retain expedite the process of time equivalents).
dedicated, talented, and faculty recruitment.  4.3. Proportion of teaching
creative faculty and staff with verified doctoral
staff. qualifications.
 9.1. Proportion of teaching
staff leaving the institution in
the past year for reasons other
than age retirement.
 Conduct annual faculty  Response rate of faculty
experience survey. completed the faculty
experience survey.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 14

  Enhance rewarding system  Percentage of recognized
faculty.
 Maintain faculty and staff  Percentage of new staff who
orientation program attended the orientation
program.
 Maintain faculty  Percentage of new staff who
mentorship program were mentored per year
II. Develop and maintain  Sustain unified faculty  Faculty satisfaction with
clear and fair criteria for appraisal system. appraisal procedure.
appraisal items
III. Empower faculty with  Maintain the work of  Number of meeting minutes
structured enhancement faculty enhancement
programs. committee.
 Increase awareness of  Percentage of faculty who
faculty towards the perceived having access to
enhancement activities. enhance opportunities
 Maintain faculty  9.2. Proportion of teaching
professional development staff participating each year in
activities. professional development
activities.
 Facilitate faculty  Number of faculty who
preparation for application applied for promotion
for promotion

6. Foster administrative performance that facilitates efficiency at

Strategic Goal
College of Nursing.

Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI

I. Ensure administrative  Continue regular meeting  Number of executive
efficiency to maximize of nursing management management meeting minutes
the use of resources. executive committee in
each campus.
 Structured monitoring of  5.1. Ratio of students to
faculty /student and staff administrative staff.
feedback regarding college  Faculty student and staff
resources satisfaction rate with use of the
college resources
II. Enhance and sustain a  Encourage innovation  Number of new innovative
culture of innovation, through. ideas.
collaboration, quality,  Maintain the availability of  Number of suggestions.
effective leadership, and suggestion boxes for
services in all areas and faculty, staff, and students.  Faculty satisfaction rate with
at every level.  Maintain open-door policy. open door policy.
 Staff satisfaction rate with
open door policy.
 Student satisfaction rate with
open door policy.
 Develop and maintain  Percentage of utilized
electronic management electronic management
system data base to services.
College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 15
 improve efficiency and
effectiveness of
administrative system

Strategic Goal 7. Enrich the quality of college life and sense of community.

Objectives Initiative/Projects KPI

I. Maintain an  Ensure optimal utilization  Student satisfaction with
environment that of available recreation recreation facilities.
increases students’ facilities.
desire and ability to  Conduct a regular student  Student response rate to
engage in extracurricular learning experience survey. complete student experience
activities. survey.
 Conduct faculty and staff  Faculty response rate to
satisfaction survey. complete faculty experience
survey.
II. Maintain a positive  Facilitate the provision of  Student evaluation of
college environment. robust academic, social and academic and career
career counselling and counselling. (Average rating
advising services to on the adequacy of academic
students. and career counselling on a
five-point scale in an annual
survey of students, target is
3.5 or more).
 Maintain an open-door  Faculty satisfaction rate with
policy. open door policy.
 Staff satisfaction rate with
open door policy.
 Student satisfaction rate with
open door policy.
 Sustain the use of  Number of suggestions
suggestions box for received.
faculty, staff and students.
 Activate a student appeal  Student response rate to
and grievance committee. complete student Experience
Survey.
 Maintain and conduct and  Faculty response rate to
maintain a regular faculty complete faculty experience
and staff experience survey.
Survey.  Satisfaction rate of faculty
(Faculty experience survey
results.
 Provide faculty, staff and  Percentage of faculty who
students orientation. attended the orientation.
 Percentage of staff and
students who attended the
orientation.
 Percentage of students who
attended the orientation.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 16

  Develop and implement  Finalize the risk assessment
risk assessment and risk and management plan.
management.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 17

Table 1: Alignment of Strategic Plan of College of Nursing with KSAU-HS

KSAU-HS Strategic Goals College of Nursing Strategic Goals

Goal 1: Bring KSAU-HS national 1. Bring College of Nursing national and

and international recognition by
international recognition by
continuously enhancing academic
continuously enhancing academic
programs that create highly competent
nursing programs that create
health care professionals and engaged
citizens. competent nurses.

Goal 2: Strengthen health sciences 2. Strengthen nursing research and

research and scholarly activities that are scholarly activities that are nationally
nationally relevant and internationally relevant and internationally
competitive. competitive.
Goal 3: Create and facilitate 3. Facilitate College of Nursing
university wide involvement in services involvement in services that promote
that promote community health and community health and engagement in
engage in social responsibility. social responsibility.
4. Enhance the College of Nursing
Goal 4: Enhance the internal
internal quality assurance system to
quality assurance system to ensure the
ensure the sustainability of quality
sustainability of quality assurance
assurance processes, achieve the
processes and achieve the required
required accreditation in a timely
accreditation in a timely manner.
manner.
Goal 5: Attract, recruit, and 5. Attract, recruit, and retain highly
retain highly qualified faculty and other qualified faculty, and provide
personnel, and provide opportunities opportunities for professional
for professional enhancement. enhancement.

Goal 6: Consolidate the

integrations of MNGHA, KSAU-HS and
KAIMRC to reach the status of a unified
health system.

Goal 7: Fortify the financial

foundation of the university
Goal 8: Foster administrative 6. Foster administrative performance
performance that facilitates timely that facilitates timely decision-making
decision-making and efficiency at all and efficiency at all levels of the
levels of the institution. institution
Goal 9: Enrich the quality of 7. Enrich the quality of campus life and
campus life and sense of community. sense of community.

College of Nursing Strategic Plan – Transforming Vision into Reality 18