“We are just free workers.” Daan De Malsche (22) expresses what his classmates have long thought. The nursing student at Artevelde University College has been doing an internship in the intensive care departments of AZ Nikolaas and AZ Lokeren since September. There too all beds are almost full. “This morning I got a call to come and jump,” says Daan. “Some colleagues turned out to have tested positive. Like me, they had come into contact with a patient who was in a non-covid ward but who turned out to be infected. ”
“After the phone call I immediately drove to the hospital, although I am not reimbursed for those hours. On the contrary, I pay for the fuel for my car out of my own pocket. Even my corona tests are not reimbursed by the hospital. On Tuesday I had myself tested after I had treated the infected patient on my internship, but then no one intervenes. We bear all expenses ourselves, which is a real shame. ”
Compressed air
The situation got Zane thinking. Supported by his fellow students, he wrote an open letter. In it he describes the mistakes that arise due to the high workload: “Patients urinate in their beds because the nurses cannot arrive in time. We also forget to distribute meals, so people don’t eat for hours. Once we even gave someone compressed air instead of oxygen. As a result, we had to intubate the man. ”
Daan’s story is one of so many. Together with some 180 students, he is in the fourth year of nursing training at Artevelde University College. Complaints are raining in their Facebook group. “We paid a thousand euros registration fee to work for free,” someone writes.
After the exhausting internship, Daan throws in the towel. He is going to study legal practice.
At Artevelde University College they say they understand the concerns of the students. However, it sounds, “As a school, we are obliged to allow our students to do an internship for 2,300 hours throughout the entire program. If we fail to meet the number of hours, we are not allowed to issue a diploma. ”
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