The exploitation of Iranian nurses, a respected and hardworking sector of society, continues unabated.
The regime keeps nurses’ salaries below the poverty line, while simultaneously increasing their workload by reducing the number of nurses.
This has led to nurses becoming unemployed, changing careers, or emigrating to other countries in a significant exodus.
According to official figures from the Ministry of Health, 1,800 nurses leave their jobs annually.
On February 18, 2025, the state-run newspaper Vatan-e Emrooz acknowledged some aspects of the disastrous employment and salary situation of nurses in a report, writing: “Iran trains and exports nurses to the world for free!”
250,000 nurses serve 85 million people, while 3,000 nurses apply to emigrate each year.
This means that for every 12,000 nursing graduates per year, there are over 3,000 emigrants.
According to the same report, nursing schools in Iran train 16,000 nurses annually in 190 nursing faculties, making it a hub for nursing education in the region. However, it should be added that Iran has now become the largest exporter of nurses.
A look at the employment situation of nurses
Currently, the number of nurses per 1,000 people in Iran is 1.6, almost half the minimum standards set by the World Health Organization.
What is the reason?
Mohammad Sharifi-Moghaddam, Secretary-General of the regime’s House of Nurses, said: “Before 1995, all medical staff received fixed salaries, but after 1997, when the ‘Karaneh’ plan (a system of payments based on performance) was implemented and money entered the health sector, everything became detrimental to the people.”
Before that, the focus was on the patient. Now, the focus is on the number of visits or services provided.
What are the natural reactions to this unjust employment system?
According to Sharifi-Moghaddam: “Currently, a nurse in a hospital receives a fixed salary of 130 million rials, approximately 160 USD based on current exchange rates. However, nurses have the opportunity to earn 2,000 USD per month in the Persian Gulf countries or Oman, which are culturally close to us. Or they can earn €3,500 in Europe or $6,000 in the United States.”
More importantly, “The fee for nursing services is 2.7 million rials, of which 14% is allocated to other groups at the discretion of the hospital, and 10% is tax. In the end, this figure amounts to 20 to 30 million rials per month for nurses, while it reaches 1 billion to 2 billion rials for other groups!”
A look at global standards
According to the World Health Organization standards, there should be a maximum of 11 nurses and at least 3 per 1,000 people. Less than three nurses per 1,000 people means a disaster in healthcare. In Iran, there is a maximum of only 1.6 nurses per 1,000 people in the best-case scenario, and this number is decreasing daily.
A look at the hidden side of the story
What the regime’s media do not explain is the intensity of the suppression of nurses in the workplace for various regime-related reasons, such as hijab rules and the like. Meanwhile, many other countries, especially in Tehran, have established free language classes for nurses seeking to emigrate, so that after language training, nurses can emigrate to their destination countries with “ironclad” contracts and provide nursing services there without the problems caused by the regime.
This is one of the hidden blows of the regime against the Iranian people that is not easily seen.