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NAIROBI (Reuters) - In a dimly lit ward at Nairobi's Kenyatta Hospital, Florence explains why she has lost heart in what was once a revered profession.

Shutting the door on fretting relatives who wander the corridor with steaming pots of porridge for the sick, she says it was all so different when she qualified 20 years ago.

"We really felt appreciated then," says the matronly figure in a neatly starched white cap and navy blue dress. "Now, I always tell my daughters nursing is not the best. Pay is not good and the patients are many."

With an average wage of less than $275 a month, many nurses rely on loans or their spouses' incomes to pay the bills. Others take on a second job or have a hand in small businesses.

This kind of hand-to-mouth existence is driving more Kenyan nurses to seek work in under-staffed hospitals and nursing homes in Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

Kenya has lost 3,390 of its brightest nurses to rich nations over the past five years, frustrating the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis -- Africa's biggest killers.

It's just one piece of a bigger picture. The World Health Organization (WHO) says up to 20,000 highly qualified nurses and doctors are deserting the world's poorest continent every year.

Many African nurses find a better life working for the lucrative private sector in the West, where they can easily earn 10 times more than if they stayed, but there are hurdles.

In Britain, for example, the government has tightened a code of practice to stop nurses being filched from the poorest countries, but many still slip through the net.

Poached by rogue agencies, some are trapped, forced to hand over their earnings to pay back extortionate recruitment fees.

"DYING TO LEAVE"    Continued ...

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