Hit hard by the health crisis, a quarter of health professionals say they are in poor health. This is double that of the French in professional activity. A situation that led several hundred caregivers to meet this Thursday, September 22, in Paris to protest against their working conditions.
After two years of health crisis -which has weakened the medical community-, the mental health of the nursing staff has deteriorated, which pushed them, among other things, to demonstrate this Thursday, September 22. Now they are 24% of those who say they are in poor health compared to 16% in 2018, according to a report published this Thursday by Odoxa for the National Mutual Hospital (MNH) that questioned 1,325 caregivers and 1,005 French representatives of the population. In detail, it is the carers who feel this feeling the most, 29%, compared to 15% of all French people. And it is their work – defined as “strenuous” by 72% of those surveyed – that is responsible for their state of health. In any case, this is the response of 82% of the health professionals surveyed for whom stress is the main factor in this situation.
Result: two-thirds of caregivers claim to have difficulty sleeping due to their work, compared to 47% of all French. A situation that encourages 31% of them to take sleeping pills or tranquilizers. This is eight points higher than for the general population.
more sick leave
With a number of hours worked above the national average (40h versus 38h) and working conditions considered difficult, in particular due to the night shifts, the “intense and continuous concentration” required by their profession and the recurrent overtime , caregivers are on the verge of despair. . This is demonstrated by these alarming data: 66% say they have already had physical pain due to their work and 58% say they feel embarrassed by their physical or emotional state of health in their social life.
In view of the results of this survey, it is therefore not surprising to observe a significant proportion of caregivers on sick leave. “We have colleagues who stop working because they are exhausted, others reconfigure themselves professionally for jobs where they are better paid and whose hours are different.[…]