At a time when hospitals are starting to deal with a new influx of Covid-19 patients, caregivers have chosen to come and lend a hand to their colleagues on the front line.
The day after the first wave of the epidemic, Ingrid, a private nurse for ten years, decided to return to the hospital: she started working in the intensive care unit in Bichat on October 1.
Stéphane, a nurse from the urology department of Cochin, is part of the Covid “reserve” of the AP-HP, and is ready to come and help in sheaves.
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"I wanted to live this historic moment"
Ingrid, 42, ex-liberal nurse, new recruit in the intensive care unit of Bichat hospital
"Come on, I'm going… can you just take a look after, to reassure me?"
»Ingrid asks her colleague Brigitte.
His current patient has the particularity of having been hospitalized awaiting a heart transplant, but also of being positive for Covid-19, which complicates matters.
Before entering her room, the nurse puts on Charlotte, FFP2 mask, apron.
If Ingrid Elie was presented to us, on the sidelines of a report in the intensive care unit of the Bichat hospital, in Paris (18th century), it is not for nothing.
"This is a rare case," the health executive had fun.
And for good reason, when caregivers exhausted after the first wave of Covid-19 make the painful decision to hang up their gowns, she made a choice against the tide: to apply as a nurse in the advanced unit in the midst of a health crisis .
As soon as said, almost immediately done, the new recruit began on October 1, at a time when the second wave of the epidemic began to unleash.
"I have a lot of things to learn"
"I come in all modesty, I have a lot to learn", she insists.
At 42, however, she is far from being a novice in the profession.
This caregiver with a communicative good humor made her debut there twenty years ago.
In Corsica, in particular, for years.
And then with the arrival of a baby - almost a 12-year-old teenager - she needed another living environment.
For ten years, in Paris, she worked as a private nurse.
“For several months, I had experienced professional burnout, the administrative red tape of the Liberal did not suit me.
To this was added the Covid, ”she says.
During the first wave, “this cannot be explained”, she only dreamed of one thing: being able to exercise her profession with the teams on the front lines.
Paradoxically, in town, nurses were little used at the time - "Today, it's different, my former colleagues are overwhelmed, especially by PCR tests", continues the quadra.
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“I had little work, so I would have done anything to be useful.
I wanted to live this historic moment, to belong to a team.
I had registered in the reinforcement cell, but I was not called.
I was damn upset, ”she jokes.
So, after the first tsunami, her decision is made: she wants to return to her first love.
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“You take the leap into the void,” her doctor told her.
Too bad if that implies a drop in wages, more weekends worked and the return of on-call nights.
“I hope I'll stay awake!
She says, as if to ward off fate.
She stops: “I am neither courageous nor heroic.
I do not deny the difficulties of my colleagues.
I just think it was important for me to do it.
“And then, it allows him to trade his hellish days in the car for a walk to the hospital, located a handful of minutes from his home.
For two months, she will have a “double”.
"It's like an apprenticeship, and so much the better", notes the one who, on her rest, reviews antibiotics and plasma exchanges.
So, when she heard on television that faced with the Covid-19 epidemic, it would "only" be necessary to open sheaves, she jumped up.
“It's heresy, behind every bed you need personnel trained in very specific techniques and supervision.
It is a requirement at all times.
This is also why I am happy to be here.
It will relieve a little my colleagues who have been living the crisis for months.
Me, for now, I am in good shape.
"
"The teams took so much money"
Stéphane, nurse at Cochin hospital, member of the Covid “reserve” of the AP-HP
/ LP / Arnaud Journois
What are you doing for the holidays?
To this question, Stéphane Leclercq is one of those rare people to answer in substance, I am waiting to go to work!
"I am ready to sacrifice my free time to make them breathe," he confirms.
" The " ?
His counterparts in intensive care, whose workload is increasing as the wave of Covid rolls over the hospital.
He, a 42-year-old nurse, does not know resuscitation.
He has worked in geriatrics, digestive surgery and, for seven years, he "flourishes", he said, in the urology department of Cochin hospital in Paris.
But recently, he took training to acquire skills in these critical care services, the numbers of which are scrutinized every evening.
This Monday, October 26, 785 beds were occupied there, out of 4,410 Covid patients hospitalized in Ile-de-France.
Officially, Stéphane Leclercq is therefore part of the special Covid “reserve” of the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP, 39 establishments in Ile-de-France).
“An internal replica of the national health reserve,” explains Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf, deputy director of the institution.
Some 700 caregivers already in post have been introduced to certain techniques in order to help out in intensive care if care in their own departments is (unfortunately) deprogrammed.
"I see myself as a second line"
“They have acquired skills in order to support and relieve the resuscitation teams, who themselves are experts,” explains Pierre-Emmanuel Lecerf.
Among their tasks, preparing and distributing drugs, carrying out vital functions, measuring pressures ... "Taking care of the syringe pumps, or just carrying things, that's fine with me", jokes the nurse, well aware that his two days of theoretical training and one day of practice - although rich - will not replace the expertise of staff trained over several years in the care of the most severe patients.
"I see myself as a second line", sums up the caregiver with the singing voice.
During his accelerated course, this conscientious man filled up with knowledge.
“We saw the right actions for an aspiration, we were well briefed on the drugs, the operation of gas exchanges, all the questions specific to the virus.
"If they agree to come back during their rest, the" reservists "of the AP-HP benefit from overtime, increased to 50%.
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It must be said that Stéphane was particularly “frustrated” with the first wave.
“I couldn't stop hearing: people are missing.
But I was not asked, although I had shown my availability!
He regrets it.
“The teams took so much money,” he says.
I would like to take their trouble, help them.
So he insists: "Solicit me, call me if necessary."
“Friday evening, his health framework in Cochin was clear: given the health situation, it should happen overnight.
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