Barely used and already torn overcoats, missing masks, words from derogatory neighbors ... There has been no shortage of testimonies from nurses reporting their professional disillusions in recent days.
This disarray, faced with the horrors caused by the coronavirus, is much more massive and now concerns a large part of the profession, as revealed by a consultation conducted by the national order of nurses with 70,000 professionals in recent days. The lack of protective equipment is not surprisingly one of the major problems deplored by these nurses who are on the front line facing the thousands of patients of Covid-19.
80% lack masks
75% of them report not having sufficient equipment: overcoats for 83% of them, masks for 78%, glasses, overshoes and charlottes for more than half. To cope with these shortages, some of the professionals contacted by Le Parisien say they use expired equipment, or keep masks on their faces longer than the planned durations.
“The stocks are tight. We count everything… We avoid changing protective equipment too often, regrets a Var hospital official. Instead of changing them between each room, as we should do, we keep them and we tour all the rooms with the same equipment. It protects us, but it can encourage cross-contamination between patients. ”
One in two nurses surveyed also regrets not having enough hydro-alcoholic gel to exercise their profession, while some estimate their consumption necessary at almost one liter per week.
Doors slammed in the nose and physical assaults
Since the start of the epidemic, social networks have shared photos of little words sent to caregivers by their malicious neighbors, going so far as to ask them to leave their accommodation so as not to risk contaminating them.
These situations are far from anecdotal, since 12% of nurses surveyed indicate that they or their loved ones have been subjected to "pressure, threats or insults related to their profession". "At the start of confinement, two patients told me that they no longer wanted to see me because they were afraid that I would contaminate them," reports Thibault Piet, a liberal nurse in Maine-et-Loire. One of them flatly slammed the door in my face and was quite vehement… ”.
A nurse from a hospital in the Grand-Est also reports an assault, just before confinement, by a visitor who did not understand the measures put in place. “I was verbally and physically assaulted by the son of an elderly person in hospital. I managed the flow of visitors that we had limited to one person. This person did not understand the interest in protecting his loved ones and she attacked me… ”The man has since apologized, she specifies. But the feeling of dismay will continue.
The fear of theft, now inherent in the profession
The feeling was generalized: four out of 10 nurses now feel targeted by a certain distrust, emanating from patients or their neighborhood, and linked to their profession. One of the nurses' companions told us of a “very strange feeling of being left out”. "Some people no longer say hello or avoid me for fear of catching the virus," he laments.
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In addition, 6% of professionals claim to have suffered an assault aimed at stealing equipment from them. Thefts which a liberal nurse had echoed, in a very relayed video, where she deplored the fact that some of her colleagues found their car open and devoid of the masks placed on the front seat. "I removed my Caduceus (sign of membership in the nursing profession, often stuck on the windshield) and I hide my equipment when I park my car," says the nurse from Maine-et-Loire. His vehicle was not targeted by malicious people, but his cabinet was. “During my last consultation before it closed, when the waiting room was fast, someone came in and grabbed the can of a liter of hydro-alcoholic gel that was available to patients », He is indignant.
"Am I in pain?" Yes "
A large majority of these professionals, more than 80%, are also concerned about the quality and safety of the care of their patients who are not contaminated with Covid, who are still in need of care.
“Last week, one of my cancer patients, who is therefore very fragile, had to have a Covid test. I was not leading wide, if it had been positive I could not have gotten out of my head that it was I who could have brought him home, ”explains Thibault Piet, a nurse for 13 years. "It feels like we are working with bits of string," said the 30-year-old, who said he had trouble understanding these shortages of equipment, despite the warning signals from the government in recent years.
Consequence of these difficult situations to live in everyday life: suffering is felt at work. Nearly eight nurses surveyed out of 10 indicate that they are in "professional suffering in view of the current situation" and 40% believe that they might need psychological support to better understand the situation today.
"Am I in pain?" Yes, says a nurse in contact with patients infected with Covid. I worked 75 hours in a week and it is also a moral and physical exhaustion. There is the difficulty of coping with the brutality of the symptoms, too many deaths, a lack of medication… ”. This professional who has been practicing for 30 years hopes, after this crisis, better recognition of her work, especially financial.
For Thibault Piet, as for other caregivers, behind this epidemic there is now a fairly uncertain professional horizon. "I'm at a point where, after all this, I may be considering a lane change," he slips.