in the middle
Working with full concentration, all night: A night shift in intensive care is demanding. The employees fight for better working conditions, the clinic against a lack of staff.
It’s still light outside when Laura Blind starts her shift. It’s 8:30 p.m. Start of shift for the intensive care nurse at the University Hospital in Münster. She won’t be leaving the building for a good eleven hours. What awaits them on their night shift is difficult to predict in advance. “It can be more relaxed than a day shift. But it can also be wild,” explains Blind. She has just changed and is now standing in a narrow corridor from the women’s changing room in light blue nursing clothes. “I don’t yet know what to expect, you never know before you go on duty.”
Then she makes her way along the hospital corridors, bathed in white hospital light. Up the nearest staircase to the first floor. “Intensive therapy station II” is written on the door, in front of which she sprays an intensive dose of disinfectant into her hands.
Two patients per nurse
“Hello, good evening,” she greets her colleagues with whom she will spend the night. The patients who are being cared for by the late shift are in rooms one to six. But soon it’s Laura’s turn. The team then sits together in the break room. It’s handover from the late to the night team. There are six of them tonight. Most of the patients here are unconscious. Also the ones that Laura Blind will take care of. Each nurse takes care of two patients.
It beeps constantly in the aisles. Again and again, the nursing staff keep one eye on the screens that display the patients’ values distributed throughout the corridor. Heart rate, blood pressure, oxygen level. All values must be correct. The main task of the nurse. “There are situations where you think: Oh God, oh God. That I’m doing this here now,” says Laura Blind. “But everything is becoming more and more routine and emergency situations are also becoming more routine. You gradually grow into it.”
One male and one female patient. The 29-year-old takes care of that today. Carefully, but clearly knowing what to do, she strides through the room. “Laura Blind my name, I’m in charge of her tonight.” She is bent over the first patient, her hand caressing the patient’s arm. “Now I’ll look at the devices first. I’ll take care of them – to take fear. I know it’s difficult.”
Blind is responsible for two patients during her shift.
All night highly concentrated
Everyone here knows anything could happen at any time. It is therefore important to concentrate as best as possible, even if there is hardly any time to take a deep breath. Because after the care comes the bureaucracy. PC work. Everything must be noted. “It’s not just a backbreaking job, you also have to stay highly concentrated all night. You have to pay attention to so many things. Not making any mistakes or being able to work well is elementary.”
Despite this, she would never give up her job. Rather, she wants to change something in the working conditions. That’s why Blind was one of many university hospital employees who took to the streets in North Rhine-Westphalia a year ago. However, it was not about more money, but primarily about relieving the burden on all clinic employees. And ultimately more time for their patients. “We basically did it for them.” They went on strike for 77 days.
More time for the patients
Blind often drove to Cologne, where the main negotiations were conducted. “If we have more time for the patient, then we also discover other things, then we see what the patient is missing when he is stressed, when I think – I don’t have time and I have to go to the next patient, then this view is missing. “
They are already feeling the first effects of the new collective agreement here: less overtime. In addition, new recording software for working times is to be introduced. And that on Blind’s ward, for example, they only have to look after two patients instead of three as they used to, she explains.
They went on strike for a better care key and are gradually getting it. But it is not uncommon for more than three patients per nurse to be cared for in intensive care units in some wards and, above all, in hospitals other than university hospitals.
So that a relief for all nursing staff is possible and thus the collective agreement can be implemented, not all hospital beds are currently occupied.
A new collective agreement has already noticeably improved the working situation at the University Hospital in Münster. But there is a lack of staff.
recruitment abroad
Of course, the goal should be to be able to occupy all hospital beds if necessary. Therefore more staff is needed. There are currently around 1,500 full-time employees at the University Hospital in Münster (UKM). “Since only very limited nursing staff can currently be recruited on the domestic labor market, the UKM will acquire a total of around 550 international nursing staff from abroad over the next three years as an interim solution,” explains the clinic management.
The nursing director, Thomas van den Hooven, also wishes that there would be more satisfactory working conditions: “The most important thing is that at the end of the day a nurse can look after patients in the way they have learned and in a way that is satisfactory for everyone. That will help also a job satisfaction, where every nurse can say at the end of the day: I did a good job today.”
In principle, the collective agreement has improved the situation, but it is far from being satisfactory for everyone. There are still a number of hurdles to be overcome in the coming years. And the biggest challenge in recruiting more staff is not an easy one.
“We are for people in exceptional situations there”
“I like my job. And a lot is happening, but it’s still exhausting, despite the partial relief,” says Laura Blind. “But it’s always good to know that what we’re doing is special,” she says. It is now the middle of the night. She takes care of the mouth, nose and eyes of patients who are unable to take care of their bodies without consciousness. Laura Blind does this for you. “We are there for people in exceptional situations to be able to help them. You just know every time that you are important as a caregiver.”
Nevertheless, little by little your eyes get tired. The body knows what it has achieved after a good ten hours. It’s getting light outside, the birds can be heard loud and clear from outside. Peacefully chirping, they announce the coming day. “Morning!” It sounds across the corridor. The morning shift is coming. Nurse after nurse is doing exactly what Laura Blind did the night before. They all come back together in the break room. Handing over.
The night shift is over after 11 hours. The early colleagues take over. In principle, it was a quieter night without incidents, but it was still exhausting enough: “I’m very, very tired,” says Laura Blind. “Now I’m looking forward to my bed and I know that I’ll be back tonight and then it’ll start all over again.”