At the end of the baccalaureate, Mathilde dreamed more than anything to put on the white coat and help others. But once the diploma passed, she experienced a disenchantment that she decided to "make her uniform". This is how she titled the book she is about to publish on January 23, which tells its story, shared by so many other caregivers. She denounces the lack of resources, staff and time that sometimes lead to treating patients without the delicacy that the job requires.
Mathilde delivered her testimony, seen from the inside, at the microphone of Olivier Delacroix, Thursday on Europe 1.
"My book I made my uniform is a testament to my life as a nurse, as I envisioned before the contest, as I experienced it during my studies and when I graduated. the different disappointments that a young nurse who comes out of school with well-established nursing values can have.The professional environment has finally nothing of what we want to teach us during our studies. it's very violent, and it's a huge relief when you get out of it.
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I started to realize from the internships. There are situations that challenge as a student. When a nurse tells us: 'you will eat later because I prefer that you finish the administrative. Do not worry, your body will get used to fasting, we say that there is a problem. When we allow ourselves as caregivers to get sick, how are we going to treat people we are responsible for? There is already something obsolete at that time.
Be careful, when we talk about abused patients, we are not talking about voluntary acts. It is negligence rather than abuse. I think it comes from burnout, which takes many different forms. Sometimes, as nurses, we say to ourselves, 'Well, no, I do not have time to go and see Madame Machin's light bulb, or the man's eschar, it can wait a day longer' . That's already abuse. But it is only because we have a list of tasks to accomplish in the space of a few hours, so we must prioritize a little arbitrary. We can not do otherwise.
Heard on europe1:
Maybe the people who are causing the abuse would have done better to stop before getting there?
These mistreatments may be a prescribed medication that can not be dispensed, or an eye drop that does not have time to put on. One day, a caregiver shouted rude words in the middle of a corridor. She said, 'Oh no, he still shook!' We do not talk like that when leaving a room, the patient hears! It's not uncommon. It does not belong to a caregiver, it can happen to anyone in the middle.
Maybe the people who are causing the abuse would have done better to stop before getting there? If they are there, it is not gaiety of heart. It's because at some point something made them let go. They lost the little flame that animated them.
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When we talk about Ehpad, we talk about 'places of life', in which we heap up all our elders. But where do we create life if we do not put in place afternoons of entertainment, gatherings between families and residents or intergenerational meetings? It is done in some institutions, but in others, there is no staff or no time. Caregivers have a thousand other things to do than create animations. When there is a caregiver for 22 residents, how do you create life, connection, recreation?
I still work as a nurse, but without a uniform this time. Today, I am thinking of those who are still in the services. The fundamental question of my book is how to continue to work in a world that no longer resembles the caring values for which we chose this job? And how to find more pleasure? We are realizing that we are sufficiently mismanaged enough to support such working conditions. "