Nurses in Iran: A Force for Change

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. I want to say a few words about perspectives of nursing in Iran and its place in the international family. I see nurses in Iran as a dynamic force of change. Three things can be discussed here: 1) Nurses here in Iran; 2) Nurses as a bridge to local and global communities; and 3) The role of the Iranian nursing organization. Whilst I will highlight some of the excellent things I have seen in Iran, I will also point out the opportunities for further progress. So what can I say about nursing here in Iran. First, Iranian nursing community has many things to be proud of. Iranian nurses are competent, enthusiastic and innovative. I have had the privilege to work with a group of thirty-two nurses for the past two years. They have embraced new approaches to learn and rise the challenge of working in teams to tackle critical issues in the healthcare services. They have been focused and honest about the need to further development of community based services in Iran (1). Because of this issue, I will briefly say a few more words about one of the team projects. A group of nurse leaders have worked to identify how the primary and community care services can be improved for the citizens of Iran. The Family Health Nurse has a complimentary role to the existing system and extends its reach. It does not replicate the family physician role but instead provides a health rather than illness focused service to families. A service that can capitalize on the trust that the profession enjoys and the autonomy that well trained nurses must be granted. The evidence clears the cost-effective roles that the citizens of Iran can fundamentally benefit from the development and implementation of this role (2). The opportunity is there. You have expert nurses that can work with the Ministry of Health from analysis to implementation. I hope to see rapid progress. This is the challenge I give you all. Iranian citizens deserve all our best efforts in this regard. The trends to the future of nursing education also should be addressed. Some of these trends are as follows: a) The explosion of technology, b) Globalization, c) The …