Nurses in operating theaters demonstrate in front of Poitiers CHU

Nurses in operating theaters are on strike all over France. In Poitiers, they were about twenty this morning gathered on the forecourt of the Jean Bernard Tower of the CHU, the university hospital center. Only twenty? Yes because some have been assigned. Even if the head of the pole took the strike into account, shifting certain operations, the blocks must continue to rotate, specifies the vice-president of the CNI of Vienne, the national nursing coordination, Sandrine Bouichou. Behind their large blue sheet stretched out as a banner, the white coats demand better recognition of their specialization and a salary increase.

Several months of training for the diploma

To be a state-certified operating theater nurse -ibode en abrégé-, it is necessary to follow a training of eighteen months. And it is essential according to Fouad Kouache. This ibode recalls that the notions of block are only dealt with superficially in the common core of nursing studiesHowever, there are specific actions to learn and expertise to acquire.

“This training allows us to master acts essential to the safety of operating rooms, caregivers and patients.”

But today, this specialty is abused. “In France, we are not well below the average for European salaries” specifies Sandrine Bouichou

Revalue salaries to encourage vocations

A hospital nurse who has just graduated from the State receives less than 2,000 euros per month for a specialty essential to safety in the operating room. Who low wages, says crisis of vocations. This is one of the consequences of the current situation.

“Who wants to go to be trained to touch so little when the responsibilities are so great? Asks the number 2 of the nursing union in Vienna.

Faced with the lack of block graduates, institutions have offered accelerated training but these do not lead to a diploma. Certainly, the ibo – block nurses without State diplomas- receive an NBO, new index bonus, kind of bonus that allows them to reach roughly the equivalent of what a young graduate earns, but it is not rewarding for anyone, according to the professionals interviewed: neither for the nurse who finds himself in the operating room without having had the full training, the diploma and the related salary, nor for the one who has spent 18 months to be trained, and who notes that his expertise does not is not valued in terms of salary.

At the Poitiers CHU, there are 28 ibode for 70 ibo, nurses without diplomas. And in this establishment as elsewhere therefore, the CNI nursing union is calling for an increase in salaries and better recognition of the specialty.

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