TEHRAN – Without nurses, no hospitals can be built and no healthcare system can develop. Nurses are the heart of the medical system.

The National Day of Nurses in Iran which coincides with the birth anniversary of Hazrat Zeinab (SA) is celebrated annually on Jumada al-Awwal 5 [the fifth month of the 12 lunar months in the Islamic calendar], which fell on November 30 this year.

Nurses play a vital role in providing care, comfort, and compassion for patients and their families.

“Protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and population” are among their duties.

With their devotion to the fight against Coronavirus, nurses marked the moments of their lives for more than 2 years with patience, sacrifice, and enduring many hardships to serve the patients, which should be praised and take measures to solve their problems.

Gov. backs nursing community

President Ebrahim Raisi said at the ceremony of nurses’ commemoration, held on Wednesday in Tehran, announced to back the nursing society.

The government supports all measures that strengthen the nursing community, he further highlighted, appreciating the medical staff for their efforts in coronavirus era.

Challenges facing nurses

Mahboobeh Rezaei, a nurse, told IRNA that high pressure and stress and insufficient salaries are among the major problems.

Mohammad Mirzabeigi, the head of the Nursing Organization, also mentioned the lack of nurses as one of the serious problems in the country’s hospitals, which has caused working nurses to work long hours making them tired and exhausted.

The lack of nurses is directly related to the life and death of the patient. The ratio of nurses per hospital bed is 2.5, although the international standard is 4 nurses per bed. While in Iran, the ratio is about 0.9 and less than one, and in some provinces, it is even below 0.5, he lamented.

There are around 250,000 nurses working in the country, of which about 60,000 are students, 140,000 are nurses working in Ministry of Health hospitals, and the rest are retired people working in private medical centers and armed forces and home care centers, he explained.

He further called on government officials to support more and take action in this regard.

International Nurses Day

Every year on May 12, International Nurses Day is celebrated to recall and show respect for the work of nurses in healthcare. Initially, Nurses Day was proposed by Dorothy Sutherland in the year 1953. 

Nurses Day is celebrated to mark the contribution of nurses to society. Nurses work tirelessly and give their selfless dedication to the service of mankind. Nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the world.

Most of the time nurses work in a tough environment where extreme stress is part of their job. However, they played a great role during the ongoing pandemic, being on the frontline of fighting the pandemic and many of whom lost their lives.

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