They chose this profession by vocation, but today our caregivers are tired. And the evocation of a third wave is not yet close to allowing them to breathe.
To the question “How are you?” “, All answered the same thing:” We are tired “. Doctors, nurses and orderlies from the intensive care unit at Albi hospital have had a difficult year. Some of them share their feelings with us.
Simon, 29 years old
Simon has been a nurse in the intensive care unit for 9 years. A job he loves but which exhausts him. “We feel more tired than before. I know that we have colleagues who will not come back, who cannot take it any longer, admits the young man. During the first wave, there was a real uproar because we received a lot of people at the same time and we had to manage a higher risk of infection than usual. We had to dress in a complex way to protect ourselves but at the same time, we had a shortage of protective equipment, recalls the nurse. Other than that, it didn’t change anything in our job. We did what we do every day, ”he says calmly. For the second wave, the thirty-something recognizes an evolution, both in the care of patients and in the physiognomy of the wave.
“In the fall, we already had more perspective, we knew better how to manage the disease but we had to deal with a lack of space. We had more patients, in a more diffuse manner. It wasn’t a peak like in the spring, but a steady stream of patients. “
So how does he see the outcome of this crisis? “We were deconfined this summer, and we paid for it with the second wave, we were deconfined for Christmas, so we must expect a third wave at the end of January,” regrets the nurse. And to add: “We are not done with the covid. What I would like to say to people who are not aware of the risk is that betting everything on the sheave is not a good plan. Going on sheaves is really the last chance. We only take people who are strong enough to withstand resuscitation. Because it is very invasive and it has strong consequences especially on the loss of muscles. Continue to restrict contacts as much as possible, ”he warns.
Mélanie, 38 years old
“I started my career in a retirement home but I’ve been working in intensive care for 11 years now. It’s a choice, ”explains the caregiver who worked tirelessly during the two waves of contamination. “We’re all starting to be exhausted. We trained a lot of people, that too was tiring; we held the boat together because it’s our job, our passion, but now we are starting to feel the repercussions, ”she admits. Also, hope that people will have been able to be “reasonable during the holidays.” We hope that in January there will not be an upsurge in contamination ”.
“This year has been a special, anxiety-provoking period, and very difficult for everyone because at the start we didn’t know a lot. But what was certain is that in the field, we lacked equipment, masks, protection, remembers Mélanie. It scared us, but along the way we adapted, she continues. We live with it now, it’s part of our daily life. Now, when we receive a Covid patient, we know what to do, we have the logistics behind: clothing, new material behind, order logistics, etc. », Specifies the nursing assistant. Despite all the difficulties inherent in the profession, Mélanie also knows how to remember good times. “When we manage to get people out of the sheave, it’s a victory! And with each new patient who arrives, we hope they will be fine too. “
Xavier, 37 years old
Xavier has been working in the intensive care unit of the Albi hospital for 10 years. A choice fully assumed. But today the nurse is “tired”. “During the 1st wave, we were in the spotlight, it gave us a boost. But the second wave was more difficult. Patients arrive in a continuous flow. We have more staff, but not as many as at the start of the pandemic, ”he says.
A sense of weariness and weariness took hold in his mind and some of his colleagues left the service because of it. “Some have even changed careers and I ask myself the question of whether I will continue … yet I love my job”.
Laureen, 32 years old
Laureen was on maternity leave during the 1st wave. She therefore experienced the start of the pandemic in a different way. “It was weird for me because I was happy to be able to be with my baby, and at the same time, I was frustrated not being able to be with my colleagues and not being able to help them,” she recalls. We do this job for this kind of situation. Of course, we do not want it, but we are preparing for it, details the young caregiver. I am proud of what has been done in a small hospital like ours. “
Borrowing from a feeling of work accomplished, Laureen is also exhausted. “It’s long and the deconfinement for the holidays worries me,” she confessed. We saw what happened with the holidays this summer. The second wave was predictable, ”she says. Determined to go to the end of her task, Laurence remains just as determined on the future, once the epidemic is behind us.
“We have been asking for beds for 30 years, we cannot have them tomorrow. But we won’t let them go. We agreed to do our job under these conditions but we hated it. We want that to change. We have to have staff so that hospitals have more resources, whether for equipment or for salaries, ”she claims.
Will the crisis allow the resuscitation service to evolve?
Among the things put in place by the hospital to deal with this unprecedented situation, the passage of guards on 12-hour duty. “This allows for better patient care,” Xavier emphasizes, for example. “Before, we had three 8-hour services, so three nurses per patient. There are now only two, so there is less loss of information, ”he explains.
Another advantage for Laureen, “it allows to have more equity in the teams because all the nurses work on each position”. If this system was put in place with the crisis, the three nurses hope that it will be maintained after the pandemic. It is also a way for them to have a less hatched pace and to be able to recover more easily.
The situation further demonstrated that this service required specific knowledge which is not easily acquired and cannot be learned on the job. “We received the support of nurse anesthetists but it is not the same thing.” Also with each new arrival, the caregivers had to transmit their knowledge. A new workload for them which also exhausted them.
A job that no longer makes you dream
For Xavier, “the crisis has also proven the specific and sharp side of our business. However, there is no specific diploma to be a resuscitator nurse. There is a state diploma for being a nurse anesthetist but not for us, ”he laments. And to add: “We want to fight for our specialty”, so why not, to have a dedicated university course and to succeed in raising salaries far from those applied in the rest of Europe.
“With the Ségur for health, we had an increase, he admits, but even with that, we have salaries below certain underdeveloped countries,” he points out. The job we do no longer makes anyone want, ”regrets the nurse.
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