Serious things resume. At the nursing training institute (IFSI) in Brumath (Bas-Rhin), the 69 first-year students listen attentively to their promotion coordinators presenting the second semester program to them. At the start of February, the mood is good, the students are smiling. They take notes, nod their heads, ask the questions that plague their minds. During this second semester, they will continue to learn the basics of their future profession by combining practice and theory. “You see us happy today”says Pauline Schneider, smiling, leaning on her table, “but last week, it wasn’t the same atmosphere.”
The start of the year was not easy. First internship, intensive course schedule, end-of-semester exams… IFSI Brumath students are tested. Installed on metal chairs, they take advantage of this moment of respite before diving head first again for the second stage of their course.
For several years, nursing studies have been victims of a paradox: popular on Parcoursup by high school students, (658,893 wishes were formulated in 2023 for 38,162 places), they are also deserted by nearly 10% of students from the first year. And the phenomenon is growing: according to the direction of research, studies, evaluation and statistics, the number of abandonments in 2021 was three times higher than in 2011. In Brumath, since September, six people have already decided to leave the training institute.
For some students, the imposed pace creates a brutal transition between final year and higher education. Léo Husson, 19, is one of the only boys in his class. The brunette with laughing eyes did not expect such difficulty in the course content. “We work from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day, we have a lot of things to learn, it’s very difficult », he sighs. His aunt, who is a nurse, passed on her passion to him and he has a deep desire to help and care. But the first months undermined the idealization of these studies.
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The start of the year was also difficult for Vanessa Buyukyalcin. This 42-year-old mother, a former medical-psychological assistant – for the elderly or people with disabilities – has retrained to become a nurse. “ I was warned it was going to be hard, but it’s even more complicated than I imaginedshe said with a tight throat. The first month, the tears flowed on their own in the middle of class, I wondered if I had the level on the theory. All these MCQs and complex questions, I couldn’t cope. » During her first internship in an accommodation facility for dependent elderly people (Ehpad), Vanessa often felt abandoned by the management: “They saw that I had experience, so they left me alone sometimes, except that I needed more help. »
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