Many of the country’s better nurses are leaving the Dominican Republic due to the low salaries paid here at public and private hospitals. Altagracia Ortiz, the medical news reporter for Hoy newspaper, reveals why there is a drought of good nurses in Dominican hospitals. The nurses have tapped into the European pipeline and dozens are getting much better jobs abroad. The wages in Europe are three to four times more than what nurses are paid here.
A recent migrant to Italy told Hoy that the minimum nurses are being paid is EUR1,500 a month, but when they work overtime, the pay is about Eur2,500 a month. A graduated nurse makes around RD$38,00 per month in the Dominican Republic or around Eur666.
One nurse who migrated to Italy and was interviewed for the article said she had to hold three jobs in the Dominican Republic to make ends meet. Yet, she was never able to save enough to build her house. The nurse said that she now has a renewable contract and is allowed to bring her family members in the future. The nurses interviewed also valued the permanent training they are receiving.
The nurses also spoke about how they were discriminated at work in the Dominican Republic. And many of those interviewed complained they do all the work, and the doctors here get the credit.
You can’t compare what you earn in Europe with the salary in the Dominican Republic; the package offered by these countries is excellent, Alba María Vicioso Paredes, who worked at the Marcelino Vélez Santana hospital, told the Hoy reporter. Hoy reports that the Marcelino Vélez public hospital has lost many nurses to the hospitals in Italy.
She says the work of nurses is not respected here and that once a professional nurse is over 55 years, it is hard to find work. She said despite the need for trained nurses, one has to beg politicians to get a job at a government hospital and that affects their dignity.
The nurses interviewed all said they plan to work hard to save up and improve their living conditions and later return.
In a follow-up in N Digital, the president of the Dominican Association of Professional Nurses, Antonia Rodríguez said few incentives, low retirement pensions and political influence peddling are among the reasons every day more professional nurses are migrating to practice abroad. She estimates this is leaving the country with a deficit of more than 9,000 nurses. She advocated for improving the conditions for the nurses to work in the country.
She highlighted more doctors are working than nurses. “Now for every three doctors we have one nurse when it should be the opposite, three nurses for one doctor,” she said. She explained: “The workload is exacerbated because the patient always requires assistance.” She explained that the small number of professional nurses on call tends to decrease the quality provided to the patients.
N Digital reports that the Dominican Republic’s Health System operates with a deficit of nurses of approximately 9,123 to reach the ideal scenario of 2.3 nurses per 1000 inhabitants, as established by the World Health Organization. The SNS indicates that from the start of the Abinader administration in August 2020 to March 2022, 1,714 nurses were added to the public health services network. The low number is due to existing budgetary limitations.
N Digital says that as of 2019, there were 1,459 nurses per 1,000 inhabitants in the DR, that is, around 15,827 nurses employed in the public health system.
Read more in Spanish:
Hoy
N Digital
20 April 2022