Salman Eshaqi, the spokesperson for the Health Commission of regime’s Majlis (parliament), revealed shocking statistics regarding nurses resigning due to professional issues, stating that “1,590 nurses resigned last year, and the number of resignations and withdrawals from nursing is two to three times higher than the number of migrations.”
Eshaqi also noted that according to official statistics, 2,000 nurses apply annually to leave the country.
According to this Majlis member, 2,000 Iranian nurses are currently working in Denmark, while there are only 300,000 nurses in Iran.
He further quoted the president of the Nursing Organization, stating that “in some provinces, there is only one nurse for every eight to nine newborns.”
Nurse migration is an issue that has been repeatedly warned about, but due to the negligence of Iranian regime officials, the migration trend has accelerated. In August, Mohammad Sharifi-Moqaddam, the Secretary of the “Nurses’ Home,” expressed concern about the migration of experienced Iranian nurses to other countries, describing the nursing situation in Iran as “dire,” stating, “Our nurses, at the peak of their expertise, are being recruited by Western countries and the Persian Gulf region.”
Nurses working in Iran are also grappling with numerous issues, and as these problems escalated, they launched a nationwide strike in mid-August, continuing their strike for over a month.
On September 1st, the Chairman of the National Emergency Medical Services Association reported that emergency services were not up to standard and that the number of active ambulances on the roads was insufficient, adding that standards were not being met and the workload on staff was excessive. This, he said, was the “main cause of nurses’ protests.”
Nurses receive around 200,000 rials (approximately $0.33) for each hour of overtime, and their total monthly earnings do not exceed 120 million rials (about $200). Despite this, they are forced to endure mandatory overtime, or they face dismissal. The Iranian regime attempted to prevent nurses from holding protest gatherings through threats, but they continued their strikes and protests.
