Low wages and work pressure are among the most prominent reasons for the migration of Syrian nurses (social networking sites)

Northern Syria -

Syrian nurse Reham Al-Halabi (a pseudonym) is preparing to travel to work in Iraq, with a monthly salary that is 10 times more than what she gets in a government hospital in Syria, after spending about 8 years of her work in the nursing profession, which she describes as harsh and difficult. .

Al-Halabi says that her monthly salary of about 260,000 Syrian pounds (18 US dollars) is barely enough to cover the cost of food, drink, and transportation for a few days of the month, in exchange for the harsh working conditions that require her to work more than 12 hours, even on official holidays and holidays.

She added in her interview with Al Jazeera Net that nurses in Syria do not receive any cash alternatives or incentives for overtime, while they are given an amount for the nature of the work that does not exceed 5% of the monthly wage, unlike the rest of the medical staff, including doctors and anesthesia technicians, who receive what Nearly 100%.

The nurse confirmed that most of her colleagues are thinking about emigrating from Syria, and are waiting for the appropriate opportunity to travel outside the country and work under better conditions, noting that what prevents them is the lack of travel costs, in addition to the regime’s government and the Ministry of Health’s restrictions on those remaining and preventing them from resigning.

Since the conflict between the opposition and the regime in Syria turned into an armed conflict, the country has witnessed a severe loss of medical personnel, which has increased in recent years, coinciding with low wages and poor living conditions in the country, in the wake of the collapse of the Syrian pound and economic crises.

Nurses in Syria do not receive any cash alternatives or incentives for overtime (social networking sites)

The nursing sector is exhausted

According to the government newspaper Al-Baath, thousands of Syrian nurses have resigned over the past five years, warning that this severe shortage has led to a decline in the quality of health care, high death rates linked to infections, and a decline in the chances of survival for patients.

The newspaper pointed out that the nursing sector in Syria has become exhausted. One nurse provides health care for every 15 patients, within an abnormal scale, as medical laws stipulate that one nurse should serve 5 patients in regular departments in hospitals.

Pediatrician Zaid Al-Asaad believes that the category of nurses bore additional burdens during the war in Syria, among the rest of the medical staff, in exchange for their efforts not being noticed and their monthly wages that do not meet their needs.

Al-Asaad said in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, "Migration and leakage of the medical sector is a natural path that occurs during wars and crises facing countries," adding that the Syrian government bears the greatest responsibility "for its failure to maintain medical personnel, by improving their wages and allowances for the nature of work."

Al-Asaad points out that the wage difference between Syria and neighboring countries played a major role in the migration of Syrian nurses, by attracting them to work with better living conditions, stressing that security solutions are useless in preserving the remaining Syrian medical personnel.

The Syrian doctor pointed out that the Ministry of Health has not, to date, activated the Syrian Nursing Syndicate, as stipulated in Decree No. 38 of 2012, and its internal and financial system has not been approved, nor has a nursing union president been elected, nor has a retirement fund been created for nurses.

Syrian doctors provide treatment for their patients (Al Jazeera)

Pursuing dropouts

In an attempt by the government to prevent resignations and the dropout of nurses, the Ministry of Higher Education raised the fine imposed on the graduate nurse in the event that she does not join the work in public hospitals, to 7 million Syrian pounds (about 500 US dollars), as it considered that the graduate nurse who is not enrolled in the hospital to whom he was directed “ She did not fulfill her obligations,” and she and her guardian are being asked to double the “expenses paid to her,” and she is being prosecuted.

The decision to raise the fine also specified conditions for accepting the nurse’s resignation, or transferring her before the end of her commitment to hospital service, at a time when nurses said that resignation had become almost impossible.

Source: Al Jazeera