A nurse anesthetist pumps an anesthetic product using a syringe, December 23, 2002 – Jack Guez AFP
“We are intubating you, they are intubating us! “… To demand recognition of their specialty and salary increases, nurse anesthetists took to the streets of several cities in France on Monday, AFP journalists noted.
A hundred state-certified anesthetist nurses (IADE) notably demonstrated in front of the Bordeaux City Hall, dressed in blue and green coats, masks on the nose and resuscitation tubes on the head.
A “sanctuary” know-how
Responding to a call to strike and demonstrate from the CGT, they defend the know-how of their profession “advanced, transversal and versatile”, which they want to see both “sanctuary” and upgraded in terms of salary scale, to take into account five years of study. The 10,000 or so IADEs in French hospitals have followed a specialization course for two years, after the initial three years in nursing school. “We cannot, on the one hand, call us overnight to go to intensive care, go to medical evacuation, in an emergency, while waiting for the same level of excellence, and on the other hand deny us a special status. “, Argues Julie, 35, nurse anesthetist at Bordeaux University Hospital for five years.
In Lille, they were also a hundred (including many students) gathered around a false coffin “nurse anesthetists. 1949-2021 ”. For Arnaud Warot, nurse anesthetist in Douai and one of the spokespersons of the regional collective, it is important to “convey to the executive the exhaustion and the feeling of contempt and abandonment of the profession”.
“IADE, a great job, a very poor status”
Ludovic Lainé, IA student, asks him that the training program for nurse anesthetists, undermined by the health crisis, be respected: “our internship hours in anesthesia are reduced in favor of the hours of real covid. We forget that our learning is done through experience ”. Several dozen people in blue coats were also gathered at the Place du Capitole in Toulouse. “We are intubating you. Véran, him, entube us ”or“ IADE, a formidable job, a very shabby status ”, could one read on the backs of certain demonstrators.
“We’re at the end of our rope. We would like our versatility to be recognized, ”explains Sandrine, 50, from Figeac, who says she earns less than 3,000 euros gross after 25 years of work, including 20 as a nurse anesthetist. A strike called by the CGT had already affected some 110 resuscitation services on May 11, according to the union, to demand more resources and recognition.