” All. you are dressed in black! » For nursing students (written inclusively on the leaflets), this Friday, May 12th rhymes with mobilization day. The goal? Denounce the conditions “deplorable” training and internship. Organized by the National Federation of Nursing Students (FNESI), this black day must be followed by professionals in the sector, whether they are in hospital or in private practice. “It’s a way of exposing the government’s contempt for us and our studies”explains to “Obs” Manon Morel, president of the organizing federation.
“We are witnessing the collapse of the public hospital”
Why are you organizing a black day for nursing students and professionals this Friday?
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It’s symbolic because today is International Nursing Student Day. Turning it into a black day is a way of exposing the government’s contempt for us and our studies. And to show that things are going badly, both in the profession and in the way of exercising.
It is a national movement which will be accompanied by local mobilizations within training institutes, hospitals, whether by students or professionals. It’s quite rare to have such a uniqueness of the profession.
What is the state of nursing education?
The quality of training has been declining for several years and resources are not allocated. We heard François Braun (health Minister) welcome the increase in the number of places in Ifsi (Nursing Training Institute) while students are already sitting on the floor in the amphitheatres! While internships represent 50% of our training (1,200 hours), the offer is not sufficient. Students will be sent to social workers or veterinarians. You cannot learn in such conditions.
Nursing training: in the Ifsi galaxy, you have to be ready for a minimum of mobility
In addition, the quality of training in the 337 establishments of this type is very heterogeneous because they are free to decide the best way to deliver the courses. There is no follow-up at this level. With the problem of shortage of internships in certain territories, establishments can for example decide to cancel an internship period and replace it with written work.
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What demands do you make to change things?
Above all, we are asking for a revaluation of the internship allowances. Today, a student receives between 1 and 1.70 euro per hour, depending on his year of training. That is less than the internship allowances for professional high school students, announced by Emmanuel Macron. Add to that the fact that the internships are further and further away and that the students have to advance the mileage costs, which are never fully reimbursed. Result: students have to choose between going to an internship or eating at noon.
We also want to have a real internship supervision policy, with professionals trained to manage students. Finally, there is a call for a reengineering of the training which dates back to 2009. It is no longer up to date and the lessons no longer correspond to the expectations of the health system and to the reality on the ground. In particular, there needs to be more links between teaching units and more role-playing with new technologies or even models.
In March 2022, the Ministry of Health announced a “pathway to success” which allows experienced caregivers to become nurses in two years rather than three. Why are you against it?
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The government advocates this path and this accessibility for career development. Except that the reality is that an important part of our training (clinical reasoning, pharmacology) is removed for these caregivers. It is therefore recommended that they have superior support, while a simple follow-up is already difficult to access. It’s the logic of “training more at all costs” to simply have more people.
Can nurses be “double doctors”?
But faced with the shortage of caregivers, in hospitals in particular, isn’t it important to increase the number of people trained?
More or less people, that’s not the question. You have to know how to retain students and professionals. Each year, 33,000 students can become nurses. But according to a survey that we carried out on a promotion between 2019 and 2022, there were only 61% of graduates. The others gave up first. If the training conditions are still deplorable, if the students continue to be harassed or not to be supervised during the internship, the increase in the quotas will not change anything. Students will still stop their studies.
