In Strasbourg, the physiotherapists mobilized want recognition

• Many physiotherapy students have answered the call from health facilities to help them cope with the influx of patients with coronavirus.
• In hospitals or in nursing homes, physiotherapy has been particularly requested to treat patients with Covid-19.
• Unlike nursing students and nursing assistants, no exceptional assistance has yet been announced in recognition of their work.

Do not tell them about the exceptional aid granted to health students, because they are not affected. Mobilized for a month against the Covid-19, physiotherapist students from Strasbourg deplore a lack of recognition of their commitment against the disease in health establishments in the Grand-Est region.

“No one regrets their participation, we are proud to have contributed to the collective effort. But we worked for a month, with all the risks that this entails for our families and us, at 35 hours per week for less than 100 euros, ”testifies to 20 Minutes a student in 3rd year. With several classmates, she denounces, in an open letter published on Twitter, that their engagement is considered as an “ordinary internship”.

Hospitals needed reinforcement

"We were supposed to be on probation, but there was the coronavirus and the confinement," she says. All internships were canceled because the liberal offices were closed and the hospitals received many patients. After a week, the structures that needed reinforcement contacted our training institute to ask for people, as needed. I was available and wanted to help, I replied to the email. "

The next day, the young woman arrived in an Alsatian hospital, with a dozen other students from her class. “We had lists of patients, like graduate physiotherapists, we looked after the patients just as much as they did. "

Physiotherapists in the intensive care unit

What is the role of physiotherapists in the treatment of Covid patients? “In intensive care, patients are bedridden and intubated, they cannot move on their own. Avoid stiffening of the limbs, and bedsores which can degenerate into necrosis. When they regain strength, the patients must then relearn to walk, sit back down, eat, we support them to rehabilitate the muscles. There is a risk of never becoming independent again. From the respiratory point of view, patients must be helped to get the secretions out of the lungs, to regain their lung volume. "

In prolonged contact with the sick, the students had, like the other caregivers, to wear "the hospital uniform plus a gown, a cap, glasses, a FFP2 mask", and change their apron and their gloves between each patient, describes the future physiotherapist. “When we work on breathing, we make patients cough and spit. Even if we are protected, there is always a little fear. "

Help for nursing students and nursing assistants

For this student, her mission had nothing to do with an internship, the status under which she nevertheless exercised for a month at the hospital. "It was a lot, a lot of work," she says. "The people in the structure were very friendly, they sincerely thanked us", reminds the Strasbourg resident. Among his classmates, some worked in nursing homes, for variable durations, and others were not mobilized.

At the end of March, the Ministry of Labor announced monthly aid of 1,400 euros for nursing students and 1,000 euros for nursing assistant students mobilized in the Grand-Est, with the participation of the region. "6,600 nursing students and 1,600 nursing assistant students in training in our region are already mobilized throughout the territory to help health professionals," said the regional council.

"Premiums must be regional"

Why not help for physiotherapy students? "Our sector is not the one we think of first," laments Hadrien Thomas, the president of the National Federation of Physiotherapy Students, who supports the open letter from Strasbourg students. "All health students are mobilized, we need identical valuations," he asks. When you find yourself working night shifts or working on weekends and are told that it's an internship, that it's paid 30 euros per week, it gets a little stuck. "

. @La_FNEK supports the initiative of #EtudiantKines de Strasbourg! The current situation should not affect the financial, academic or psychological situation of the students. https://t.co/3hY3DDilkd

Hadrien Thomas explains that "physiotherapy students do not have the status of public hospital agents, unlike medical students". "We follow a health and social training which depends on the regions, the premiums must therefore be regional," he adds. Result: unlike those in the Grand-Est, physiotherapists and paramedics from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté will receive 1,200 euros per month worked, like nursing students and nursing assistants, reports France 3.

"Discussions are underway"

From one French region to another, the amount of aid and the categories of students valued therefore change. Midwifery students ask to be able to also receive the exceptional premiums linked to the mobilization against the coronavirus.

# COVID19 | The ANESF and professional bodies are vigilant to respect the #rights of students and their security. Midwifery students must benefit from the measures announced by the government in order to enhance their commitment. pic.twitter.com/jcKEJLs4li

Regarding physiotherapy students, "at this hour, nothing is stopped, discussions are underway," said 20 minutes this Thursday, the regional council of Grand-Est.

• Covid 19
• Coronavirus
• Society
• Strasbourg