It is a great honor for me as a nurse, On May 12, the International Nurses Day, as the Nursing Deputy of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and on behalf of 2 hundred thousand members of Iranian nursing community, I salute any nurse from any country, of any color, race and language. I humbly kiss their loving hands. For more than a year, these heroes have shown great commitment to morality and humanity and have selflessly taken care of COVID-19 patients and public health.
The current year is designated as the Year of Health care workers by the WHO, and last year, also was designated as the year of Nurse and Midwife. Along with other frontline care providers, nurses as one of the main pillars of health provision, have shown great dedication and self-sacrifice amidst the global crisis of COVID-19 and presented their capabilities in care provision and COVID-19 control and management. Although in this global crisis, a number of our beloved nurses and physicians lost their lives, who were named as martyrs, and many of them became infected, we are proud to say that more than 2 million hospitalized patients recovered and returned to their families and are now in good health. According to Holy Qur'an, whoever saves a life, it will be as if they saved all humanity”. Nursing is an opportunity to give life to all human beings and humanity. Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader and other officials, as well as the public, expressed their gratitude to nurses, for their hard work and increased efforts, which inspired a greater motivation in nurses for providing nursing care for patients. The Nursing Deputy has taken effective measures to fight COVID-19. One of our most important challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic was the shortage of nursing staff, therefore we employed 24,000 nurses, facilitating the rules for hiring temporary nursing staff, fully utilizing all staff including retired staff, graduate nursing students, senior nursing students, nursing professors and instructors in order to provide self-care consultation systems as well as nursing services in hospitals against COVID-19. Another issue was the empowerment of nurses and nursing managers, which was overcome by holding training courses, implementing successful domestic and international experiences in educational health centers and training 5,000 nurses for ICU in two primary and advanced levels. Furthermore, for psychological, financial and motivational support of nurses, effective measures were taken such as increasing nurses and all healthcare staff’s salaries by more than 50%, selecting 1000 exemplary nurses and Mr. President and the Health Minister’s honoring and encouraging of them, as well as honoring the martyred nurses and their families. Due to the importance of providing home health care services for patients, standard service packages were developed for COVID-19 patients and the related care instructions were imposed. Avoiding utilizing high-risk nursing staff in the COVID-19 referral hospitals, monitoring the supply of medical and personal protection equipment and the quality of the equipment have been among the effective measures to control and manage COVID-19. Finally, I humbly congratulation the international nurses day, and thank dear nurses all over the world and in my dear country Iran, who bravely, patiently and kindly provided care to people. It is hoped that soon, by eradicating this global pandemic, the world will see security and serenity once again.