Stressful working conditions and low pay is forcing hundreds of thousands of qualified nurses to leave Iran. Officials are actually facilitating the process.

  Mehrdad Ayoubi, chief executive of the International Work Placement Association, claimed that his organisation alone had been responsible for the emigration of 200,000 nurses to Turkey in recent years. Thousands more are now working for the health services and private hospitals of other countries, he added. 

Figures published on the Jame-Jam online news website show that only 30% of these nurses left the couutry through official channels, with the remainder using independent specialist recruitment agencies operating from Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. Low salaries, long working hours and lack of job security are believed to be the main reasons for the exodus. Some nurses are still paid as juniors even after many years in the profession. 

A Nursing Association official told Jame-Jam that the average monthly salary for a qualified nurse in Iran is around 600,000 tomans (€1000), while a nurse working for the same number of hours in Europe would receive that each week. In another comparison the news website reported: “ In the United States the salary of a heart surgeon is four times that of a nurse. In Iran the factor is between one and five hundred.” 

“Canada and Australia are among the most popular destinations for those emigrating. Nurses there are in great demand, and the governments of these countries have their own recruitment agencies, and offer many perks,” said the website.

Source : Shahrzad News