Hamidreza Azizi, in an interview with the social reporter of rahnam news agency, said about the latest situation of the shortage of nursing staff in the country: In the past few years, we were faced with the problem of a severe shortage of nursing staff, which has become a chronic problem; Currently, it is estimated that we are facing a shortage of at least 100,000 nursing personnel.
3 factors aggravating the shortage of nurses in the country
He added: On the one hand, several thousand hospital beds have been added to the country’s medical centers in the past years, and on the other hand, a large number of nursing staff retires or migrates every year, which increases our need for nursing staff.
The recruitment exam of the Ministry of Health did not cure the problems of the shortage of nurses
He continued: The recent recruitment test of the Ministry of Health was delayed and about 12,000 nurses were supposed to be recruited, but even this amount of recruitment does not meet the needs of the country’s hospitals and the shortage of nurses is still strong.
There is less than one nurse per hospital bed
Azizi said about the standards for the number of nursing staff: the number of nurses is measured per population and per hospital bed; For each hospital bed, we should have an average of 2.5 people in the nursing group in the country, that is, we should have an average of 1.8 nurses and 0.7 people (less than one person) from the nursing group, but currently there is an average of less than one nurse. For every hospital bed we have.
Public hospitals suffer from a shortage of nurses
The Deputy Director of Development and Resource Management of the Nursing System Organization stated that public hospitals also suffer from a severe shortage of nurses and stated: the high workload and heavy nursing shifts are not compatible with the number of available personnel; This issue has imposed heavy and long shifts and mandatory overtime on the country’s nurses and has led to an increase in their work pressure.
15 to 35 thousand tomans per hour of overtime for a nurse!
He also stated about the amount of overtime received by nurses: on average, a nurse receives an amount equal to 15 thousand to 35 thousand tomans per hour of overtime, which is a very low figure.
Annual request of 2000 nurses for immigration
Azizi pointed out: the low salaries, along with the severe shortage of nursing staff, has increased the desire of some nurses to emigrate; Currently, 200 nurses apply for Good Standing (certificate of competence to do work for immigration) every month, of course, not all of these people may immigrate, but on average, it can be said that 2000 nurses apply to immigrate every year.
He continued: In European and Persian Gulf countries, nurses are paid a lot; On the other hand, due to the fact that the world is moving towards old age, many countries need medical personnel, including nurses, and these two issues have increased the recruitment of nurses in foreign countries.
Deterioration in the quality of service to patients due to the lack of nurses
According to Azizi, in addition to increasing the work pressure of nurses, the lack of nursing staff also causes a drop in the quality of medical services provided to the people because we should have 2.5 nurses for each hospital bed, but now we have less than one nurse for each bed. It means that a nurse has to provide nursing services to several patients at the same time.
The incompetence of the Ministry of Health is the main reason for the shortage of nurses in the country
The Deputy Director of Development and Resource Management of the Nursing System Organization said: In the several meetings we had with the Supreme Leader in the past years, he placed special emphasis on recruiting and eliminating the shortage of personnel and localizing the standards of the nursing workforce, but the Ministry of Health has not been involved in this matter at all. And he could not consult with the organizations involved in recruiting nurses to solve the problem of lack of manpower. In other words, it can be said that most of the shortages in the field of nursing are due to the incompetence of the officials of the Ministry of Health.
Annual training of 12,000 nurses in Iran
He also stated about the number of nursing students: In the country, we have more than 200 nursing schools under the supervision of the Ministry of Health and Azad University, and about 10,000 to 12,000 students are admitted to these schools every year.
In response to the question, is the number of students accepted in the field of nursing sufficient to solve the shortage of nurses in the country? He stated: On the one hand, due to the low income of nurses, some students do not want to continue their education and work in the field of nursing, and on the other hand, due to the fact that many nursing graduates are not employed, it is not possible to have a very accurate estimate of this issue. Is the number of students in the field of nursing sufficient or not because the necessary platform for attracting and employing these forces has not been provided and even if the capacity is increased, the problem of the shortage of nurses will not be solved.
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