Mohammad Sharifi-Moghaddam, secretary-general of the Nurses' House, told Khabaronline on Sunday, 4 October 2026, that the average monthly salary of nurses in Iran is 25 to 28 million tomans, which at the current open-market exchange rate is worth only about $100. He said about 70,000 nurses are staying at home and a wave of resignations in the profession is continuing.
According to Voice of America and Iran International, Sharifi-Moghaddam said many nurses have concluded that staying at home means a lower cost of living for them. He added that nurses have lost hope in the future and believe officials have no will to solve the profession's problems; that is why many of them choose to resign and leave the profession.
One nurse for 30 patients
The secretary-general of the Nurses' House said the burden of staff shortages has fallen on working nurses, and a nurse who should care for five patients is now forced to take responsibility for 20 to 30 patients. He said many job advertisements for nurses go unfilled for lack of enough applicants, and the decline in the quality of hospital services can lead to irreparable harm and even the death of patients.
Sharifi-Moghaddam attributed the injustice in the health sector's pay system to a “conflict of interest”, saying that while most nurses struggle with meagre salaries, some people within the same structure receive fee-for-service payments running into billions and under-the-table payments. He said the number of nursing graduates has risen in recent years from five to six thousand to 18 to 19 thousand a year, but this increase has not made up for the staff shortage.
The rial's collapse and pressure on livelihoods
This warning comes as the rial has hit one record low after another in recent days, and the dollar rate on Tehran's open market passed 273,000 tomans on Sunday. According to Voice of America, annual inflation stands at 73.6 percent and food inflation at 108.8 percent.
A nurse's monthly salary in Iran has fallen to about $100 at the current dollar rate.
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