Migration of Nurses Pose Threat to Healthcare in Iran

Iranwire – A member of Iran’s Supreme Council of the Medical System has warned that nurse migration is no longer a manageable problem but a full-blown crisis in the country.

In an interview with Radio Salamat on March 11, Abolqasem Talebi highlighted that Iran falls far behind the global standard of three nurses per hospital bed. It has less than a third of that number.

“We have about 240,000 nurses nationwide,” Talebi said. “Even if we doubled that number, we’d still be significantly behind the world standard.”

The crisis is compounded by the annual exodus of close to 3,000 nurses. While Iran trains roughly 10,000 nurses annually, the migration rate creates a concerning deficit.

“The head of the nursing system organization recently confirmed that 6,000 nurses retire each year, mirroring the number who emigrate,” Talebi added.

He attributed the nurse migration to “livelihood problems” and “limited employment opportunities.” 

Furthermore, Talebi linked the “failure to provide adequate support” to nurses with a decline in the quality of care and a rise in patient mortality.

Nurses in Iran have held protests demanding improvements, but action on the part of the government has yet to materialize.

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

However, there are also 20,000 to 30,000 unemployed nurses in Iran 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 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 ($200), authorities have opted to exert pressure on existing nurses through mandatory shifts.