Their names were Valentin, Tristan, Quentin, Florian ... They were all interns and committed suicide since the start of 2021, exhausted by their working conditions. "
An intern means endless days, two on-call 24 hours a week and insane pressure because we have people's lives in our hands
", testifies Quitterie *, a pediatric intern in Lille. For five years, she has been walking day and night in the whitish corridors of the Lille University Hospital, sailing every six months between the intensive care units, the emergencies and general pediatrics. If she "
held on
", it was thanks to her friends and family, but several times she "
hesitated to stop everything
". "
I no longer slept, I was permanently exhausted, I didn'tno longer tasted like anything
".
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Like her, out of 30,000 residents in France, more than 66% show signs of anxiety, 28% have symptoms of depression, 26% have suicidal thoughts, according to the study by the Intersyndicale Nationale des Internes (INSI) in 2017. "
An even higher figure with the arrival of the pandemic
", complete with
Figaro
Gaëtan Casanova, president of the union and intern in anesthesia-resuscitation in Paris. An increasingly glaring distress that the Ministry of Health has decided to take in hand by organizing a consultation meeting with all health students on Tuesday, May 18 at 8 p.m. The minister will have to respond to a horde of students already exhausted, weakened by the crisis. "
We do not want a coup de com ', there are real questions, real problems which reflect a hospital that is at the end of its rope,
”defends Gaëtan Casanova.
Physical and moral exhaustion
"
I am always tired,
breath Angélique *, intern in intensive care in Nice.
I work more than ten hours a day, sometimes without a lunch break.
The 26-year-old student chose this specialty out of passion, but she "did
n't expect it to be that difficult
." Endless days of work, 24-hour shifts, permanent stress ... For almost six years, she "has
n't stopped
". The weeks are linked, the nights are shortening and his holidays are canceled. She remembers that week in February when she spent more than 80 hours in hospital. “
I chained the blocks, intubations, care, reports
, she says.
I arrived at the hospital, it was dark, I left, it was dark
”.
An exhaustion that is felt not only in these intensive care units, shunned in recent weeks due to the pandemic, but also in the other floors of hospitals.
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According to an INSI study dating from 2020, interns are very far from performing the regulatory 48 hours a week but exceed 58 hours, or even 90 hours for certain specialties such as surgeons. “
This limit must be respected,
asks Gaëtan Casanova,
it is a necessity
” because “
beyond that, we are dangerous for ourselves and for the patients
”. These are often flouted because "
there is work, absent staff and we have no choice
". Pressure felt by the majority of interns, coming from department heads who do not hesitate to solicit their students. 90% of them suffer moral harassment, according to the union. "
Every day I am stressed, I am afraid of doing wrong, of making a mistake,
”repeated Theophile, a surgical intern.
Every day, the young Lyonnais rubs shoulders with death, anguish, tears, tragic announcements to families ... and has to face them alone.
Young people alone and helpless
“
We don't have time to listen to us, to discuss what we're going through, we have to move forward,
” laments the surgical intern. Faced with many responsibilities, medical students are often called upon to make decisions on their own. “
On guard, a chef is sometimes available but not always. I have already spent whole nights being the only doctor present,
”he recounts, noting that he is still in training and“
not knowing everything
”. Superiors who are sometimes insensitive to the fears of the youngest who are starting out, regrets Gaëtan Casanova for his part. “
They keep saying it was worse before, but it's wrong. If the number of hours was greater, the load was less.
"
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The president of the national union asks for better monitoring of interns and department heads for "
more human management
". Gone is the medical culture where it is normal to let go and accept such living conditions, "
it must stop
". And everyone can make a contribution to the building, hopes Gaëtan Casanova. “
Less administration and more care
” is one of his main requests. “
We are not against working a lot, it's a job we do with passion, but we need to be with our patients, to treat them, not to have our hands in the files.
The interns are not the only ones to criticize the part taken by the administration on the care.
"The discomfort
is not specific to young people, it is global in the profession
”, supports the National Council of the Order of Physicians in its study on the health of young caregivers.
A malaise all the more curbed with the pandemic which has upset the organization of all hospital services, from nurses to doctors and interns, making them more vulnerable.
INSI has therefore launched a national investigation to establish with precision the consequences of Covid-19 on the morale of these students.
The first results should be communicated in two to three weeks.
* Their first names have been changed at their request
