Introduction: With the healthcare transformation in Saudi Arabia being massive under the Vision 2030, the nursing workforce as the biggest part of health providers have been under more stress than ever in the workplace. The serious risk to the sustainability of the Saudi healthcare system is burnout, which is defined as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and the decreased personal accomplishment. Although the Kingdom employs a two-sector framework (Public and Private), the individual stressors and burnout degree among these settings do not have a unified approach in the literature. The knowledge of these differences is crucial to the creation of sector-related retention policies and quality of patient care.

Study Objective: The aim of this research is to conduct a systematic, comprehensive review of the body of literature, so that we can compare how often and how much stress/burnout nurses working for public hospitals (Ministry of Health) and private hospitals in Saudi Arabia experience.

Methodology: A systematic review was undertaken in accordance with PRISMA. An extensive search was conducted in electronic databases, such as PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and the Saudi Digital Library (SDL) to find peer-reviewed articles on the topic published within 2016-2026. The inclusion criteria were studies that used the validated measures of burnout, including the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and were concentrated on the registered nurses in Saudi hospitals. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tools were used to conduct quality assessment. Narrative synthesis of data was done and classified according to hospital sector and dimension of burnout.

Conclusion: Stress and burnout at the workplace in Saudi Arabia are institutional, and not personal problems. As the public sector experiences the volume-based strain, the private sector experiences the performance based anxiety. The solution to these problems has to be multi-factorial with policy level intervention to standardize nurse-to-patient ratios and institutional level intervention to promote supportive leadership.