Health: François Braun gives himself one year to "refound" the nursing profession

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP 19:01 p.m., May 26, 2023

Entrust new "missions" to nurses, review their training and career prospects: the Minister of Health, François Braun, promised Friday to caregivers a "refoundation of the profession" supposed to "succeed in September 2024". "Investing in the future of this profession is a necessity," he said at the end of a symposium on the nursing profession organized at the ministry, adding that "this refoundation should be completed in September 2024". Faced with the chronic shortage of caregivers, the first objective is to attract and retain them "by opening up the field of possibilities".

"Moving to a more agile approach"

The decree that defines nursing acts, and which has not been modified for almost twenty years, will therefore be reviewed from top to bottom to "move to a more agile approach, around major missions". This will, for example, give caregivers "all the necessary latitude" to take care of chronic wounds, said François Braun, also referring to other developments around heart failure and addiction.

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The training of future nurses will also be "rethought", to curb the "too strong loss of students", 10% drop out from the first year, by developing tutoring "during internships", but also apprenticeship "from the beginning of the next school year". Repeating his intention to prohibit temporary work for young graduates, the minister however wished to "give a new impetus" to the careers of caregivers, based on the status of advanced practice nurse (APN) created in 2016.

"The goal is to reach the mark of 5,000 more qualified caregivers"

These more qualified caregivers in certain fields (cancer, dialysis, psychiatry) are currently less than 2,000 and "the goal is to reach the 5,000 mark" by the end of next year, recalled François Braun. However, this will only concern a minority of the 637,000 nurses, employees and liberals, working in the country, according to the latest figures dating back to the beginning of 2021. Traveling in the afternoon to the hospital of Eaubonne (Val-d'Oise), the minister opened the door to another form of recognition for the profession: the "site" of wages remains "on the table", he told AFP. Three years after the "Segur de la santé", which made it possible to "go from 1,700 to 2,100 euros at the beginning of his career, which is far from negligible", François Braun considered that it was necessary to "open on other stages".

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Among the liberals, on the other hand, the negotiation with the Health Insurance demanded by the unions is not on the agenda, but "the question of inflation arises, as for all health professions, and I am thinking about it," he said. For nursing students, finally, François Braun said he was "fully open" to "discuss aid for those who do not have the means" to finance their three years of curriculum, in connection with the regions. "Half of the students come from working-class neighborhoods," he stressed, hailing "a formidable tool for social lifting".