Amount nurses leaving Spain to find work abroad nearly double by 2022, according to data from the General Council of Nursing Colleges, that tops out in the middle serious health crisis with demands for better working conditions by health workers.

According to statistics, 1,100 professionals leave the country in 2022, compared to 572 who decide to do the same in 2021. They mainly travel to Norway, England and Ireland in search of better working conditions.

In the first two months of 2023 alone, 286 professionals have left Spain.

Professionals identify two main reasons for leaving the country: vulnerabilities that exist in the collective and temporary nature of the contract. Carmen Guerrero, spokesperson for the SATSE union, explained that there are many factors behind this vulnerability, but the main one is nurse’s goal of “work overload”.something that “doesn’t happen in other countries” and it’s linked to what Guerrero calls a “chronic labor deficit”.

“A nurse has to treat between 20 and 25 patients, when they should be six to eight years old,” Guerrero explained to Newtral.es.

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For example, in the Netherlands, the nurse-patient ratio is now a maximum of seven, nurse Maribel told the outlet, adding that “it would be impossible to achieve this in Spain.”

Another major reason that nurses go outside Spain to work is temporary contracts.

“Four out of 10 nurses in our country have temporary contracts. Contracts that can be for months, but sometimes weeks or days to cover summer holidays, Easter or Christmas. A situation that prevents family stability and reconciliation and that resulted in many nurses going to other countries,” said Guerrero.

From the Council of Colleges of Nursing they ask the Administration to increase the workforce and improve working conditions, because they are professionals “highly recognized in other countries” for their training. Which for the Council is “both proud and sad” that they are training “super competent” professionals who have had to leave Spain to work as nurses.

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Guerrero, in turn, agrees that countries invest in training that is “highly valued” across Europe, securing highly qualified professionals, but complains that “we let them go to other countries that haven’t invested in them” when in addition in Spain they are needed to strengthen the squad.

Spain has been experiencing a health crisis in recent months. The country lacks human resources in this sector and planned strikes by health workers in at least six different areas have been the reason for the increased waiting time to see a doctor, which is now half a day. The regions with the longest waiting times were Catalonia and the Valencian Community where the average time exceeded 10 days. This further encourages residents to turn to private medicine.

Meanwhile, the leader of the country’s Popular Party, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, is convinced that Spain needs more doctors, commenting on the recent protests in the country.