Icelandic nurses increasingly choose to leave the profession due to stress and poor pay, and instead take on jobs as flight attendants with local carriers Icelandair and WOW Air. According to Mbl.is, trained nurses receive a higher salary as flight-attendants, as well as working fewer hours.
“Well-educated nurses are choosing to either leave the profession, or not enter it at all. They’d rather take on jobs as flight attendants. There’s at least one trained nurse on every single flight today,” says Ebba Margrét Magnúsdóttir, chairman of the Medical Board of the National University Hospital of Iceland. She expresses concern regarding the situation, as the nursing shortage threatens patient care. Meanwhile, passengers with Icelandair and WOW Air can fly easy knowing there is a registered nurse on board.
