Healthcare Workers Protest in Three Cities: Promises Are Not Enough, Our Tables Are Empty

The Nurses House and the Telegram channel of the Coordination Council of Nurses' Protests reported on the organization of protest gatherings by nurses from universities of medical sciences and public hospitals in Yazd and Fasa, as well as emergency medical personnel in Mashhad on Saturday, November 12. These protests were part of ongoing demonstrations by nurses across various regions in Iran due to unmet demands from the Islamic Republic officials. According to videos shared on social media by these two professional organizations, protesting nurses in Yazd chanted: 'Don’t think that today our promise is every day.' At the protest of 115 emergency personnel in Mashhad at the Gharishi building of the university of medical sciences, they also chanted: 'Promises are not enough, our tables are empty.' Previously, reports indicated that the Council of Representatives of Nurses at the University Hospitals of Mashhad had given the government a deadline until November 17, Nurses' Day, to address the demands of the nursing community in Iran. They announced that they would not participate in any official ceremonies for this day. Meanwhile, media reports indicate a continued shortage of nurses in Iran's healthcare network and an intensifying trend of nurse migration. In this context, Ahmad Najatian, the head of the Nursing System Organization of the Islamic Republic, citing statistics from the Ministry of Health, told Tasnim News Agency that 'in just one year, 1,500 employed nurses have left their jobs, and about 500 have migrated.' He equated this number to the annual exit of double the number of nurses from Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran and pointed out that a recent call for recruiting nurses in Tehran left many positions unfilled. The head of the Nursing System Organization explained that 'the nursing profession lacks attractiveness for nurses in terms of work difficulty and income, and the cost of rent and housing in Tehran is so high that nurses' income does not cover these expenses.' A Ministry of Health official also confirmed these issues, stating that nurses' salaries do not correspond to their work difficulties, leading to nurse migration and a shortage of nursing staff in the country. The Director General of Empowerment and Improvement of Human Resources at the Ministry of Health told the state news agency IRNA that the average overtime pay for nurses is less than 30,000 tomans per hour, which, along with other problems, has led to widespread nurse migration, as many countries provide better financial conditions for nurses. Abbas Abaszadeh emphasized that we are facing many challenges in clinical services that harm the public. He noted that many countries around the world need nurses and offer favorable financial conditions for their presence, which is why we are experiencing widespread nurse migration. In this regard, the Secretary-General of the Nurses House of Iran reported on November 6 that 50,000 nurses are 'housebound' and stated: 'Until we fix the infrastructure, hiring is like water leaking through a sieve.' Mohammad Sharifi Moghadam told the newspaper Shargh that currently, nurses are migrating or leaving their jobs for other occupations. The intensification of nurses' problems and challenges in August of this year led to a continuous nationwide strike involving hundreds of nurses and healthcare staff from public hospitals, emphasizing the realization of their professional and livelihood demands, which began protests and strikes in at least 16 provinces of Iran and continued until September. The continuation of nurses' strikes led to security confrontations and the arrest of several nurses, prompting the U.S. State Department and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to express concern on September 8 about the 'unjust detention and sentencing' of protesting nurses in Iran. At the same time, a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department announced that the department is closely monitoring the protests of nurses and healthcare staff in Iran and expressed concern over reports of 'unjust' detention and sentencing of many protesters in these peaceful demonstrations. The reasons for the migration or housebound status of nurses, despite the severe shortage of nurses, from the perspective of Mohammad Kazem Attari, are also highlighted.