I Was Clear with My Goals, Where I’m Heading, and What I Wanted with My Life: Life History of an Omani Woman and Nurse Leader

This study uses life history methodology to examine the personal experience of being an Omani woman during the Omani Renaissance, choosing a career in nursing, and evolving into a nurse leader. There is a lack of research on why Omani women choose to enter the workforce, choose nursing career paths, and what sustains them in the nursing workforce. There is also a lack of research on the path to Omani nurse leadership. The research question is: What is the personal experience of being an Omani woman during the Omani Renaissance, choosing a career in nursing, and becoming a nurse leader? Life history methodology was used to examine the life of an Omani woman nurse leader within a few years of retirement, who has been a nurse in Oman since she was a young woman, in relation to the context in which her life occurs. The researcher spent many hours of informal time and conducted four in-depth interviews with this nurse. Interviews were also conducted with ten colleagues, as well as three family members. Inductive thematic analysis revealed three dominant themes: opportunity, visionary, and nursing; with subthemes: national identity, country building, nursing pioneer, leadership, perseverance, resilience, mentors, advocacy, caring, and fulfillment. Conclusions from this study are that opportunities, personal attributes and motivations all played a role in overcoming barriers to empowerment in the workforce and shaped decisions about employment. Additionally, personal attributes of perseverance and resilience, as well as mentors, facilitated leadership development.