“the working conditions are catastrophic”

the working conditions are catastrophic

The hospital in crisis again and again. The diagnosis is not only that of the hospital staff, it is also that of the executive. Very difficult working conditions, lack of caregivers and particularly nurses: the hospital is struggling to recruit. Meeting with a newly graduated young nurse who will soon start working at the hospital. He reveals his apprehensions.

Graduated in February, Stéphane took a few months off before starting to work in September at the hospital, before the big leap, but not really into the unknown.

During his internships, he was confronted with the lack of staff and suffered from it. ” I had plenty of internships during which I could not have an ideal framework because the working conditions were quite catastrophic, he confides in Valerie Cohenfrom the RFI France service. Either there was a lack of carers, or there was a lack of a framework, for example, to organize the work, or there was too much work for the nurses. I remember one nurse who had fourteen patients and really kept running around, so it took time to explain. Generally, it was always: “We’ll talk about it later, we’ll see later, I don’t have time”, and I was following the movement and that’s it. »

► To read also: France: hospital emergency services suffering despite the “flash” plan

Closing gaps

Enthusiastic about the idea of ​​exercising this profession that he loves in the intensive care unit he has chosen, the young nurse is also a little worried: “ You should know that sometimes nurses can be moved from one service to another to “fill in” gaps. And in fact, we sometimes find ourselves with nurses who do not know the service at all. Very clear example: I was on a course in follow-up care and rehabilitation, in geriatrics, and that day I had no nurse to train me, there was no nurse either in the service. It was an intensive care nurse who came: she did not know the twenty patients who were there, but in intensive care, we are supposed to have between two or three patients. There, drastic change, and any other frame and she started to panic! I remember that she ended the day in tears because unfortunately she couldn’t do a treatment. »

Stéphane already knows that he will not practice as a hospital nurse all his life.

► Also to listen: Emergencies in crisis in France

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