NCRI – Nearly 1,000 nurses working in Iranian hospitals attended a rally in front of the mullahs’ Parliament. They expressed their discontent due to the low wages and working conditions increasingly difficult.
According to the official news agencies, this protest rally was held on Sunday, February 22 in Tehran. The nurses said that for years, their salaries have not been upgraded, while their workload has increased considerably.
For one year, nurses have organized several similar protest actions in Tehran and other cities in Iran.
Due to their difficult working conditions, many nurses who previously were working in province, left their hometowns and migrated to Tehran and other major cities in search of work. In Iran, public hospitals are currently facing a serious problem of nursing shortage.
According to international standards, there should be a minimum of two nurses per hospital bed each day, while in Iran this number is half this, according to some officials.
The shortage of nurses has forced nurses to work many hours in overtime.
It is estimated that some 40 nurses leave Iran every day to work in other countries making the situation in the hospitals critical.
The flow of Iranian immigrant nurses to Canada has increased. Canada is the first immigration destination for Iranian nurses with close to 50 percent, while the UAE attracts some 30 percent of immigrants.
Australia, the USA and the UK are among other major destinations for Iranian nurses.
