Tribune. The bronchiolitis epidemic is early and intense this year in France. This pathology, which causes acute respiratory distress in particular in the smallest (less than 6 months), places a significant burden on the emergency services, pediatric intensive care and general pediatrics, yet already heavily mobilized by the health crisis. that we are currently living. Among children under 10, the incidence rate of coronavirus contamination skyrockets, even if the number of hospitalizations remains contained.
At the same time, alerts are increasing : closures of pediatric emergency departments, shortage of trained pediatric caregivers… The situation turns out to be catastrophic. Gradually, it is the expert professions in the health of the child who disappear, including pediatric doctors, in a sad indifference. Emmanuel Macron, through his “first 1000 days” policy, had made childhood a priority of his five-year term.
It is clear that the government’s response to the current situation is today inconsistent, even failing. What about the contempt displayed for nurses, representing more than 22,000 professionals today in France, who have not stopped alerting the government for months?
A request for recognition
Their request: finally to recognize a profession created more than seventy years ago, working every day in hospital services (maternity, neonatal, pediatrics, etc.) and out-of-hospital (maternal and child protection, reception methods, etc.) to support patients. families and children’s health.
This crisis does not only affect the hospital. A May 2021 report from the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs already noted the glaring lack of monitoring of children’s health in cities, the shortage of pediatricians, and the need to promote child health actors. The deployment of the skills of pediatric nurses was then pointed out as one of the solutions to be implemented, especially since 2009 when the initial nursing training no longer includes pediatric teaching.
Until recently, the National Pediatric Council reaffirmed its wish to see the situation of pediatric nurses evolve. Professor Isabelle Claudet, head of pediatric emergencies at the Toulouse University Hospital and co-chair of the permanent working group “Comprehensive and concerted child health policy” within the High Council for Public Health, published an article to signify the fifty years behind France on this subject.
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