Iran’s Healthcare Crisis: Six Nurses Emigrate Every Day

In recent years, a rising trend has emerged in Iran's healthcare landscape – a brain drain of nurses. 

Reports from Iranian media paint a stark picture, revealing that approximately five to six nurses are leaving the country every day, amounting to around 150 nurses a month and a staggering 1,200 to 1,500 nurses each year.

Mohammad Mirzabeigi, the head of the nursing system organization, brought these statistics to light. 

The primary factors driving nurses to emigrate are low salaries and excessive mandatory overtime, as emphasized in a Donya-e-Eghtesad newspaper report. 

A substantial number of nurses and nursing graduates are slipping out of Iran without filing formal applications. The nurses are moving to diverse destinations, including the United States and countries in the Persian Gulf, where opportunities for employment in their field are abundant and offer a tempting prospect for a better future.

Health officials in Iran's Ministry of Health report a severe shortage of 70,000 nurses in the country's hospitals and medical centers. 

But there are also 20,000 to 30,000 unemployed nurses in Iran, paradoxically, despite the desperate need for more nursing professionals. IranWire cannot verify the reasons for their continued unemployment amid the nursing shortage.

The situation has reached such a point where nursing activists, such as those quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency, have raised concerns about the allocation of resources. 

Instead of hiring additional nursing staff and providing them with a minimum monthly salary of 12 million tomans (US$240), authorities have opted to exert pressure on existing nurses by imposing mandatory shifts and offering overtime wages ranging from 13,000 to 20,000 tomans. 

The report in Donya-e-Eghtesad newspaper, published on October 24, underscores the gravity of the nursing shortage. 

Nursing union activists have sounded the alarm, warning that patients' well-being is in jeopardy due to the critical nurse deficit.

In line with international standards, there should be approximately 2.5 nurses for every hospital bed. 

In comparison, the United Kingdom maintains a ratio of four nurses per bed. Shockingly, Iran lags far behind, with a ratio of eight-tenths, which falls well below half the global average.

Nursing activists interviewed by Donya-e-Eghtesad highlight the dire understaffing in most Iranian hospitals. The situation has been exacerbated by the aftermath of the covid pandemic, during which nurses who served on the frontlines have now found themselves jobless when the crisis subsided, placing both their livelihoods and patients' well-being in peril, according to an activist. 

Mohammed Sharifi Moghaddam, secretary-general of the nurses' union, has also said that the health system in Iran acts as a repellant for nurses. 

"In other countries, nurses enjoy salaries ranging from $4,000 to $8,000, while in Iran, they earn a meager monthly income of six to 12 million tomans, equivalent to a maximum of $300," he said. 

The Ministry of Health had made a commitment to recruit 10,000 nurses annually since 2016, a pledge that has gone unfulfilled. Even those who successfully passed the nursing exam were left without employment – as noted above – and the nursing exam has meanwhile not been administered for the past three years.

The Donya-e-Eghtesad report also exposed the dire situation in a government hospital's midwifery department – where the average staffing is only two midwives. International standards specify that there should be a minimum of 14 midwives present on maternity wards. 

Furthermore, these understaffed midwives are compelled to work a grueling minimum of 150 hours of mandatory overtime each month, with their leave requests routinely denied.

One midwife from a government hospital revealed that many nurses and midwives have abandoned their professions to pursue alternative careers, such as operating shops or bakeries.