The mask is no longer compulsory in the hospital and in the clinics of Brive, between “liberation and fragility”

This is a decision that has been up to the heads of health establishments since August 1, 2022. Last week, the management of Brive hospital indicated that the mask was no longer compulsory for staff and patients. The Saint-Germain clinic has done the same since Tuesday, February 21. The Cedars clinic as well. “It’s not an easy decision to make, believes Isabelle Bielli-Nadeau, director of the private establishment. It was taken collectively with the executives and the practitioners. It is both liberating, but we also feel a sense of fragility.”

“Sure it’s not a joke?”

“Are you sure it’s not a joke?” Léa asked her colleagues when she took up her service at Brive hospital last weekend. This 22-year-old caregiver has never known anything other than “all mask” since she started working during the Covid epidemic. “It’s really weird. Never, you would have thought to put it down. To take it off suddenly, it’s a little scary.”

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She also sees many advantages. “Patients see our smiles. They also recognize us and that changes everything,” she adds. In pediatrics, “we could sometimes scare children with this “disguise””, continues Léana, a 24-year-old childcare assistant, who also did not know before Covid in the hospital.

“A lot of things go through the face”

For Alexis, it is also a pleasure to find the patients’ faces in their entirety. “Non-verbal language is very important in care. A lot of things go through the face”, notes this nurse anesthetist who of course did not drop the mask in his service. “In the block or in sheaves, it is an essential work tool”, adds the professional who, without a mask, has the impression of “resuming a normal life”.

“A normal life” also for the speech therapists at the hospital who have worked so far with transparent masks that they bought themselves.
A life without a mask, but with reflexes of prudence and common sense. “We did not want to leave it mandatory in one service and not in another, notes Isabelle Bielly-Nadau. Everyone is free to put it on or keep it.”

In pediatrics, Léana keeps her mask on when she treats a child with bronchiolitis, for example. “In oncology, we sometimes wonder. In terms of immunity, haven’t we lost a bit? Some caregivers keep it on out of professional conscience to protect patients, notes Benoît, dosimetrist. If the patient feels safer with the mask, obviously we keep it.”

Patients… not always aware

François, 61, wears an FFP2 mask. He comes from Saint-Céré (Lot) for an oncology consultation at the hospital. “It’s a shame not to wear the mask anymore! It’s stupid. I’m transplanted. I have no immune defense. I wear the mask all the time and I will wear it all my life. And there is no it’s not just the Covid”, launches this patient in front of the entrance to the hospital center where the ballet of patients, caregivers, workers for works is going well.

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Maria also has a mask on her nose. “It’s not mandatory anymore? I don’t know. I’ll keep it. I have asthma.” Amal, 42, also has her face covered with a black mask. “I came for treatment. I cough a little so I wear it. I don’t want to contaminate fragile people. And I also protect myself.”

Good indicators but…

The figures from the laboratory of the Cedars clinic show “a very low Covid positivity rate”, according to Isabelle Bielly-Nadeau. “There are three or four patients hospitalized for Covid when they were still in their forties in January,” adds Christophe, a nurse working in the hospital center’s IT department.

To the director of the Cedars clinic to temper: “After everything we’ve been through in recent years, we’re never completely relaxed when we make this type of decision. We also have to be more reactive in the future to reactivate this type of measures”.

Emilie Auffret