"We are intubating you, they are intubating us!
": Nurse anesthetists took to the streets of several cities in France on Monday to demand recognition of their specialty and salary increases, AFP journalists noted.
Blue and green coats, masks on the nose and resuscitation tubes on the head, a hundred state-certified nurse anesthetists (IADE) notably demonstrated in front of the Bordeaux City Hall.
Responding to a call to strike and demonstrate from the CGT, they defend their “advanced, transversal and versatile” know-how, which they want to see both “sanctuarized” and upgraded in terms of the salary scale, to take into account has five years of study.
The approximately 10,000 IADEs in French hospitals followed a specialization course for two years, after the initial three years in nursing school.
Demonstration this morning in Metz by nurses and nurse anesthetists from public and private hospitals, "for legislative, regulatory and financial recognition of their profession".
Photos: Emmanuel André pic.twitter.com/2YjwQSnb6v
- France 3 Lorraine (@ F3Lorraine) May 17, 2021
"We cannot, on the one hand, call us overnight to go to intensive care, go to medical evacuation, in an emergency, while waiting for the same level of excellence, and on the other hand deny us a special status. “, Notably argued Julie, 35, nurse anesthetist at Bordeaux University Hospital for five years.
Exhaustion and feelings of abandonment
In Lille, they were also a hundred - including many students - gathered around a false coffin, on which was inscribed: "nurse anesthetists. 1949-2021 ”. For Arnaud Warot, one of the spokespersons of the regional collective, it is important to "bring back to the executive the exhaustion and the feeling of contempt and abandonment of the profession". Ludovic Lainé, a student, asks for the training program for nurse anesthetists, undermined by the health crisis, to be respected: “our internship hours in anesthesia are reduced in favor of the hours of real covid. We forget that our learning is done through experience ”.
Several dozen people in blue coats were also gathered at the Place du Capitole in Toulouse.
"We are intubating you.
Véran, him, entube us ”or“ IADE, a formidable job, a very shabby status ”, could one read on the backs of certain demonstrators.
“We're at the end of our rope.
We would like our versatility to be recognized, ”explains Sandrine, 50, from Figeac, who says he earns less than 3000 euros gross after 25 years of work, including 20 as a nurse anesthetist.
The mobilization also gathered in Paris, Nantes and Metz.
A strike called by the CGT had already affected some 110 resuscitation services on May 11, according to the union, to demand more resources and recognition.