Little-known health professionals, hard hit by the health crisis, laboratory technicians are worn out and tired, like all hospital staff. For the recognition of their know-how, they gathered in front of the Rennes University Hospital on May 18 at 11 a.m.
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“In a hospital, there isn’t a patient who doesn’t go through the lab. Numbers, ionos, we do all the blood tests, urine tests, stool … Everything that comes out of a human organism, we analyze it“Administrative recording of samples, analysis, investigation in the event of pathological results, these precise actions of the laboratory technician have been the daily life of Virginie (the first name has been changed) for 20 years.
The training of a laboratory technician requires a BTS (Bac + 2) or a DUT (Bac + 3). Medical, biological and technical knowledge to be supplemented by experience. “It takes months and months of bench-top learning to gain expertise. It takes at least six months or even a year in the job before being really a good, autonomous technician.“she specifies.
© Juliette Vincent-Seignet / France Televisions
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A profession with strong responsibility
“If the machine that does the first analysis detects an excess of white blood cells, for example, it could be a banal infection, or leukemia. It is up to us to verify this by analyzing the cells under a microscope.“Even if their work is supervised and their results validated by a medical biologist, laboratory technicians have a heavy responsibility.
Do + with –
At the hospital, laboratory technicians are present 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. And are paid at the minimum wage at the start of their career. “We have trouble recruiting. Young people don’t make them dream. “.
And the lack of personnel is felt in the service: “In any case, the policy of hospitals is to do more with less … so we work overtime, we eat faster, we run in all directions“regrets Virginie.
When we go too fast, it worries us. At the end of the day we say to ourselves I hope I haven’t forgotten anything, as long as I haven’t made a mistake!
The number of samples has exploded
With the health crisis, between analyzes of patients in intensive care and PCR tests, the number of samples has exploded. At the Saint-Malo hospital, where Virginie works, only one additional technician dedicated exclusively to PCR was recruited. “Clearly, that was not enough. I don’t know how to keep up!“
Gathered this Tuesday, May 18 in front of the Rennes University Hospital, the laboratory technicians from the hospitals of Saint-Malo, Dinan, Rennes and Saint-Brieuc are asking for the reengineering of their diplomas (currently bac + 2 / bac + 3) to a bachelor’s level, and the upgrading of their salary scales. And this, in the same way as those of radio manipulators and nurses, which will intervene on October 1, 2021.
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