Azerbaijan, Baku, Jun.18/ Trend F.Karimov/
Iranian nurses are unhappy over the salaries they receive in comparison to doctors, ILNA quoted Iran's Nursing Council Chief Gazanfar Mirzabeygi as saying.
Although an average nurse receives no less than an average civil servant, the salary cannot meet their needs completely, he said.
Nurses complain that although they work neck and neck with doctors, their average salary is 300 times less than the average salary a doctor receives. There is nowhere in the world having such an unjust system of payment, Mirzabeygi said.
In October 2012, Mirzabeygi said hospitals in Iran are experiencing a shortage of nurses who leave the country on a daily basis.
According to Mirzabeygi, the nurses leave Iran because of low salaries, whilst abroad they are getting paid more than in Iran.
Mirzabeygi said recently that one of Iran's neighbouring countries, without revealing which one, said it seeks to invite some 30,000 of Iran's nurses for work, with a monthly salary of $2000.
He noted that according to international standards, there should be a minimum of two nurses per hospital bed each day, while in Iran this number is less.
Secretary of Iran's Nursing Council Sadighe Salimi has said that each day some 40 nurses leave Iran and the situation in the hospitals is critical.
She said that newly hired nurses in Iran get a salary of some $380 and such low payment forces them to leave their jobs.
Salimi said that these nurses mostly leave to go to the U.S., Canada and Australia where the average nursing salary ranges from $2500 to $4000.
In August 2011, the Iranian Nursing Organisation's Deputy Ahmad Nejatian said that the flow of immigrants from Iran to Canada among nurses has increased over the past six months.
Canada is the first immigration destination for Iranian nurses with 47 per cent while the UAE attracts 33 per cent of immigrants. Australia, the USA and the UK are among other major destinations with suitable conditions for Iranian nurses.