Iran’s workforce has always been subjected to abuse. Nurses are at the vanguard of the coronavirus crisis, fighting alone and without support from public organizations. Even the Iranian Ministry of Health refuses to use its resources to alleviate the status of this segment of the population.
The People’s Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran), and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) reported that Iran has the same number of nurses per patient as the average for developing countries. There are 1.5 nurses per thousand patients in Iran.
This amount should be greater than three people, according to the global average. It’s worth noting that the Ministry of Health initially decided to expand the number of nurses to 40,000 in the last months of last year, but only 13,000 workers were eventually hired.
Despite the fact that this number is insufficient, it can relieve nurses of their burden. However, they have yet to be assimilated into the labor market, and it is uncertain when they will enter the field of coronavirus battling.
The Secretary-General of the House of Nurses and Deputy Head of the Iranian Nursing Organization feels that the position of nurses in Iran would not improve much if the Ministry of Health is involved in faction rivalries and profiteering.
Rouhani’s government adopted a “tax” to alleviate the status of nurses in the final days of his presidency, working with the Supreme Insurance Council in the cabinet. However, it has not yet reached the stage of implementation.
While the coronavirus has reached its fifth peak in Iran, many experts expect a super-critical situation, all of the pressure is on the medical professionals, particularly nurses. According to studies, the nurses’ mental health is poor, and they suffer from excessive anxiety and stress as a result of their work environment.
Imagine walking away from a coronavirus patient on the street, fearful of becoming infected, while the nurses are only a few inches away from the critically ill patients. This means that the medical personnel is at its most pressured.
Wage compensation, which was once one of the demands of nurses, is still very low, and no one is demanding 100,000 to 200,000 tomans any longer, but the authorities are to be blamed for paying for overtime.
Nurses are required to stay longer in hospitals due to a scarcity of nurses, and they are paid roughly 15,000 tomans per hour for working overtime.
This amount is not only insignificant in this situation, but it also makes the nurses’ work futile. It should be noted, even this modest amount is deposited to the nurses’ account with a delay.
Only high-ranking officials are replaced when the Ministry of Health structure in governments changes.
When treatment in Iran became compensated in the early 1990s, a mafia arose in the Ministry of Health that solely cared about their financial interests, and this group introduced the ministry and its deputies, leaving no opportunity for nurses’ concerns to be heard.
The Ministry of Health’s structure has all but crumbled in light of the current coronavirus scenario in Iran.
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