The 365 nursing training institutes (Ifsi) received more than 689,000 application files on the post-baccalaureate orientation platform in 2021, according to the Ministry of Higher Education.

Only four years ago, the institutes listed 180,000 applications.

A surge which is explained – in part – by the 2019 reform. Until then, candidates had to take a competition for each school to which they applied, with key registration fees and travel.

Since 2019, graduates apply on file with a maximum of ten Ifsi, through Parcoursup, free of charge or competition.

"The profession is highly valued and respected" in public opinion "but there is a gulf between training and the reality on the ground", told AFP Mathilde Padilla, president of the federation of nursing students (Fnesi).

The nursing diploma represents "an attractive course" but which struggles to retain students, she notes.

A nurse in the intensive care unit at the AP-HP Antoine-Béclère hospital in Clamart, near Paris, on December 23, 2021 GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT AFP / Archives

A "chasm" which explains, according to the young woman, the defections during the training course.

These abandonments then translate into recruitment difficulties for hospitals, according to a Senate inquiry commission published in March.

Thus, two months after the start of the 2021 school year, nearly 13% of students have dropped out of their training, according to figures from 165 Ifsi sent to the Committee of Paramedical Training Institutes (Cefiec).

So many future nurses lost for a sector "with very significant recruitment needs", recalls Amélie Roux, human resources manager for the French Hospital Federation (FHF).

"Orientation errors"

Advertising campaign, announcement of the opening of 10,000 apprenticeship contracts at the start of the next school year: the government has just announced a series of measures to vary the profiles of students in the paramedical field.

A nurse at the AP-HP hospital in Kremlin-Bicêtre, near Paris, in May 2021 BERTRAND GUAY AFP / Archives

In a sector where schools and health establishments make little use of apprenticeship contracts, the government hopes to attract a new public and limit the number of dropouts due to financial reasons.

For the representatives of nursing students and trainers contacted by AFP, learning is "a means, but not the solution to everything".

"Between internships and theoretical learning", training in the paramedical field is already based on field work, underlines Amélie Roux, of the FHF.

It is the confrontation with the reality of the hospital or other healthcare establishments, discovered during the internships, which is the first cause of abandonment by students during their course, points out Mathilde Padilla.

The Cefiec survey evokes the "orientation errors" and "personal reasons" pleaded by the students on departure.

“The competition at least gave the students time to mature a project and think about the nursing profession,” says Michèle Appelshaeuser, president of Cefiec.

Preparation of a vaccine by a nurse, in Quimper (Finistère), April 30, 2021 Fred TANNEAU AFP / Archives

The Senate report published at the end of March tackles the "less relevance" of access to school via Parcoursup.

“The selection, where there is no longer an interview, is not suitable”, judged Rémi Salomon, president of the medical commission of the Hospitals of Paris, during his hearing in the Senate.

The "overabundant demand" for high school students wishing to become nurses "directs towards the Ifsi too many profiles appearing insufficiently motivated or prepared for the reality of training", estimates the report of the Senate.

The president of the federation of nursing students says she is "completely against" a return to the entrance exam.

Mathilde Padilla calls instead for a homogenization of the recruitment criteria between the 365 Ifsi, and especially for "work on orientation", from high school, to avoid disappointment once in school.

© 2022 AFP