Isabelle, nurse in Belgium: "I will not change my job for anything in the world"

Text by: Sabine Cessou Follow | Sabine Cessou Follow

Nurses are on the front line facing the coronavirus. From Europe to America via Africa and the Middle East, RFI gives them a voice. In Belgium, Isabelle N. spent a week in the Covid-19 section of the hospital where she works, the University Hospital Center (CHU) of Dinant, a locality in Wallonia close to the border with France.

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In March, during the first weeks of the pandemic in Belgium, the team of the Dinant teaching hospital in which Isabelle N. works groped, like everyone else. "  We monitor all kinds of symptoms : in addition to those of the disease, those of the treatments, with special follow-ups for patients with different side effects  ". At the beginning, this Belgian nurse remembers the hesitations on the dosages of the protocol of Dr Didier Raoult, Plaquenil and Azithromycin, administered by her CHU. “  This treatment works very well, we have seen many people recover, and others have not, with side effects that we have discovered as we go along. We only had seven dead in Dinan, which remains a small field hospital. All were over 80 "

Certain stress has set in due to the protective measures to be taken. “  For the first time, we had to dress from head to toe and learn to undress without getting on our faces and eyes. We took the plunge  ”. Several of his colleagues were infected and had to stay at home, without dramatic consequences.  

No screening for the nursing staff 

A shower in the hospital, another on the way home, it's everyday for Isabelle N., who goes to bed early after a day's work. She is not afraid for her, but for her relatives, worried about transmitting the virus to them without her knowledge. She decided that her two and a half year old son would wear a mask, like her, outside the home. "  I only went out to do small shopping, but I was afraid of transmitting the virus because we are not detected, even if we know that we can be a healthy carrier. The policy has been to say : As long as you have no symptoms, you are not smeared.  "

Also, she lives in fear of having transmitted the virus to her son, who could infect other people in the family. "  Do not cuddle with a little one, it's complicated ... I think we should screen caregivers who have been in contact with Covid-19 patients, as is the case in Germany, where screening is free for everyone. In Belgium, I don't know what they expect.  "  

►Read also: Coronavirus: the European Union in search of cohesion

Neither glove nor masks in a rest home until April 3  

His point of view is just as clear on the Belgian, dramatic situation, the country having crossed on April 29 the bar of 7,500 deaths per 11 million inhabitants, the highest mortality rate in the world, compared to the size of the population (650 deaths per million inhabitants, against 353 in France, 179 in the States United, 76 in Germany, 12.5 in Greece and less than 5 in Morocco). More than half of the patients who die are in nursing homes, the name given to nursing homes for the elderly in Belgium. It is only since April 10 that screening tests became widespread in these houses (up to 95,236 to April 28), which became such epidemic hotbeds that the army had to intervene in some to compensate for the nursing staff. , either ill or deceased.  

"  In nursing homes, the situation should have been taken much more seriously," says Isabelle N. With us, 8 out of 20 patients come from the nursing home next door, half the floor is full! Some nurses from the CHU had to go and help there, but there was no protective measure: no gloves, no masks, until Friday before Easter weekend.  "  

Support in death by palliative care  

Elderly people infected with the coronavirus were transferred to the hospital, where they were not all intubated beyond the age of 80. “  The families told us not to be relentless. Patients and families have the right in Belgium to let people know, they sign a paper and the patient is comfortably let go with painkillers. We did comfort care, without putting them on a ventilator at their age. Intubating someone 86 years old is not possible, because of the after-effects : muscle wasting and difficulty in recovering on the respiratory level, or coming out of a coma in which the patients are placed to breathe. Sad to say, but it takes less time if you do not intubate and if you accompany with palliative care  ”.  

Another problem for ten days: the CHU having canceled the consultations and other appointments until May 13 for other pathologies, the hospital is "  half empty and we are now unemployed, paid only 70 % of our salary , the total of which in my case is 1800 euros net  ”. Isabelle N. sees it as an injustice, insofar as other civil servants who have not been on the health front line or in contact with patients on the contrary receive their entire salaries.  

Isabelle N. has no regrets. She chose her job a bit by chance, following a friend in nursing school. "  I got hooked right away and I won't change jobs for the world, " she says. What keeps her going? "  Recognition of the patient, seeing people said to be convicted leave the hospital six weeks later. Also, teamwork. There are the doctors, the physiotherapist, the anesthesiologist. Everyone brings their seed to allow the patient to evolve . ” 

► Also read:

• Marie-Antoinette, nurse in Senegal: "After Ebola, I was ready"
• Raheleh, nurse in Iran: "We tell ourselves that death is near us"
• Yasmine, nurse in the Paris region : " the hardest part is powerlessness in the face of families "

►Also listen: Health priority: World Nurses Day

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