Overseas jobs more rewarding

"When I graduated, I thought I was prepared for any challenges my job might bring. But the reality caught me off guard," said Xie Yanxi, 25, who is set to go to Stuttgart to work in a nursing home.

Xie graduated as nurse in 2011, and worked for about two years in a Guangdong hospital before quitting.

She gained invaluable experience in the "tough departments" of intensive care for newborns, the departments of brain surgery and tumors, but her salary was not commensurate with her workload.

"Most of the time I got paid 4,000 yuan ($640) to 5,000 yuan a month," she said. "In Germany I will get 2,300 euros ($3,000) a month."

Aside from the working conditions, disputes between medical workers, patients and their family members, which sometimes turned violent, sapped morale, she said, as did a feeling that careers were stalling.

"I saw many colleagues who had been working for almost 20 years and turning 40, but still doing night shifts. Very few of them would get a management post. I saw my future in them," she said.

About 10 people in her class went to work as nurses in the hospital when they graduated, but none of them are there now, said Xie.

"Some of them went to study postgraduate courses in order to get a better job. Others became salespeople for medical equipment companies," she said.

Most hospitals in the country do not have clear, designated work descriptions for nursing in different sectors, which is an important reason for the drainage of talent, said Cai Wenzhi, deputy director of the School of Nursing at Southern Medical University in Guangdong province.

"Most hospitals have their nurses do night shifts and basic daily nursing, no matter how long they have been working there or how experienced they are, which makes the nurses feel there is no career future for them," she said.

Nurses tend to be easier targets for patient dissatisfaction, said Cai, who was a nurse from 1988 to 2010.

"When I worked as a nurse, I saw a number of cases when patients were not satisfied with the treatment, or they found it too expensive. They took out their anger on the nurses, not the doctors," she said.

Yang Jie, head nurse at the gynecology and obstetrics department at Beijing Friendship Hospital, agreed.

"Maybe it's in traditional Chinese culture that jobs involving 'the serving of others' are looked down upon a bit," she said.

"Also, it's usually harder for nurses to get equal opportunities as doctors. Thus talented and ambitious nurses may turn to medical institutions abroad for better development."

wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn