Care professionals welcome this campaign but remain convinced that the attractiveness of their professions will return with better working conditions.
«We need you“, launches in a new clip from the Ministry of Solidarity and Health a man who plays the role of an educational companion. Faced with the shortage of personnel in the care and support professions, the government launched this Monday, March 21, a recruitment campaign on social networks. Several video clips have been posted on the ministry’s Twitter and Facebook accounts since the morning of March 21. This campaign concerns four trades: caregivers, nurses, specialized educators and educational and social support.
A problem of “loyalty» caregivers
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, public and private healthcare establishments have experienced an unprecedented recruitment crisis. According to the National Union of Nursing Professionals (SNPI), 60,000 nursing positions have been vacant in France since the fall of 2021. Two years earlier, before the pandemic, only 7,500 positions were vacant, still according to the union. Also, the representatives of the nursing staff welcome the recruitment campaign. But for Thierry Amouroux, spokesperson for the SNPI, the solution to the problem lies elsewhere. “Our problem is not recruitment but retention“, he says. According to figures from the Ministry of Higher Education, in 2021 the Nursing Training Institutes (IFSI) attracted more than 612,000 wishes on the Parcoursup post-baccalaureate assignment platform, making this training the most requested of all. ‘Higher Education. However, according to the French Hospital Federation, 5 to 10% of hospital beds in France are closed for lack of caregivers.
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«It’s not that we don’t train enough nurses, it’s that we can’t retain them because there’s a loss of direction, poor conditions, understaffing“says Thierry Amouroux. “It’s good to do a communication campaign, but above all you have to re-motivate the caregivers already in place.“, confirms Guillaume Gontard, president of the National Federation of Associations of Caregivers (FNAAS).
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On the side of the human resources departments of health establishments, the campaign is received very positively. “We need to combine all the efforts to attract”, advances Fabien Martinez, director of human resources of the CHU of Amiens, who deplores fifty vacant nursing positions in his establishment and fifteen for nursing assistants. “It’s difficult. This represents an additional burden and fatigue for the staff on site.
Develop learning
Earlier in March, the Ministry of Health announced its objective of recruiting 10,000 work-study students in the care professions at the start of the next school year, or 6,000 more than today. The ministry has also announced that it wants to initiate a “path to success» in two years for experienced caregivers wishing to become nurses, with the aim of promoting career development in the care professions. Such training already exists today but lasts three years. The possibility of greater career mobility is indeed part of the demands of the federations of caregivers.