Romain Rouillard (comment collected by Inès Zeghloul) / Photo credit: ALINE MORCILLO / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
The Ministry of Health suggests giving nursing assistants with more than three years of experience access to nursing training in two years, compared to three currently, in order to make up for staff shortages. The unions, standing up against this proposal, evoke a danger to patients.
The proposal made the nurses jump. The government would like nursing auxiliaries, with more than three years of experience, to be able to be trained as nurses in the space of two years, instead of three today. A proposal intended to deal with the shortage of caregivers but which received a cold reception from the unions who do not hesitate to speak of endangering patients.
“They have the idea of doing what they have done in nursing homes where more than half of the staff who work there are not health professionals”, denounces at the microphone of Europe 1 Thierry Amouroux, vice-president of the National Professional Council of Nursing.
“This will affect the follow-up of the person”
According to him, a limited training time will have direct consequences on the patients treated. “When you have someone who is trained in just two years and not three, there is bound to be a skill gap, a lack of knowledge about methodology, biology, emergency care and that will ripple through on the follow-up of the person.”
And Thierry Amouroux illustrates his point through a concrete example: “We can miss the follow-up of the side effects of drugs if we have not had any education in pharmacology. So it is a real danger for patients”. Moreover, this measure, he argues, will instill doubt in patients. “They will no longer know who the white coat in front of them is. Is it a real nurse trained in three years or partially trained in two years?”, He asks.