Increase in Class Disparity Between Doctors and Nurses Amid Health Transformation Plan

Zeynab Fadaei, a member of the Supreme Nursing Council, stated that the implementation of the third phase of the 'Health Transformation Plan' in Iran has led to an increase in 'class disparity' between doctors and nurses, to the extent that a doctor earns '100 times' more than a nurse. On Saturday, December 21, she told Mehr News Agency that the 'class disparity' between doctors and nurses in other countries is only three to four times. The third phase of the 'Health Transformation Plan' began on October 1, 2014, and has faced opposition from some doctors and nurses. Mohammad Sharifi-Moghadam, the Secretary-General of the Nursing House, criticized this phase at the time, stating that the 'incentive for nurses is 300,000 tomans' while 'the incentive for doctors is 60 million tomans.' Sharifi-Moghadam added that 'such blatant discrimination has no precedent anywhere in the world. This discrimination is not only incompatible with our beliefs but also with the approved laws and the overarching health policies of the country.' Since the implementation of the third phase of this plan, as reported by the Secretary-General of the Nursing House, nurses in hospitals in Qom, Azerbaijan, Bushehr, Mazandaran, Tehran, and Tabriz have held protests. The protesting nurses claim that this plan has reduced their income and increased doctors' income by 'threefold,' exacerbating the 'class gap' among hospital staff. Nurses have long been dissatisfied with their professional and legal status in Iran, and according to Sharifi-Moghadam, they have held more than 50 protests in recent years. Zeynab Fadaei also mentioned that nursing students have 'no facilities,' while 'all medical students and professors have rooms, but nursing students do not have access to them.' Fadaei added that since the hiring of nurses has become 'contractual,' 'nurses lack job security, their earnings are poor, and their salaries are often paid with delays of several months.' The number of nurses in Iran is reported to be around 150,000, with only 'three percent' of them satisfied with their jobs, according to the Secretary-General of the Nursing House. The dissatisfaction of nurses with their working and living conditions has led to a widespread migration of some of them abroad. In this regard, Ghazanfari Mirzabigi, the head of the Nursing Organization, announced in June of this year that 'on average, less than 100 nurses migrate from our country annually.'