Christine G. has been running a grocery and café in the Zurich Unterland for two years. The café is now closed, but the demand for food has increased. It is quite possible that Christine G., whose husband is on the job as a paramedic, will soon have to return to her profession as a nurse. An amendment to the law passed by the Zurich government council last Wednesday allows the canton to provide trained nursing staff. Those who have learned a profession in the healthcare sector but no longer work there can be obliged to re-enter. The Health Act was retrospectively adjusted to March 1, 2020, according to the minutes of the government council.
Of course she would help if necessary, says Christine G. The mother of a child gave up the nursing profession 2 years ago – due to the workload, the low wages and the lack of compatibility with the family.
Zurich is not the only canton that is desperately looking for health workers. The Graubünden government council decided on Friday to oblige former nursing staff to return to work. As a first step, all those who have received the appropriate training must no longer work in their job and do not belong to any risk group on the canton’s website. “In a later phase, they could be committed to use,” writes the government council.
The canton of Friborg in turn has seized two private clinics. The Clinique Générale is closed and its 40 nurses come to the cantonal hospital. At the same time, the birth department and surgery are transferred from the cantonal hospital to the private hospital in Daler. In this way, the number of intensive care beds in the cantonal hospital is increased from 12 to 50.
Other cantons rely on voluntariness. For example St. Gallen, where the health department launched a call on Wednesday. With success: 500 people have already registered by the weekend, as the canton reports.
Intensive care staff wanted
The episodes show that there is great concern that there will not be enough staff to deal with the pandemic. Anja Heise from the Swiss Society for Intensive Care Medicine is convinced that the problem will not be the beds and ventilation machines, but rather the shortage of staff. The question will be whether enough specially trained nursing staff are available for intensive care medicine, she said in an interview with the “Sonntags-Zeitung”. Thierry Fumeaux, president of the company, has contracted the corona virus himself. The virus is relatively harmless for the experts themselves, he says, but not for society. “Specialists are irreplaceable in the fight against Covid-19.”
After the nursing diploma, intensive care staff complete a two-year additional training course in which they learn to deal with life-threatening patients – for example after an accident or when someone needs artificial respiration. “You don’t learn that in two weeks,” says Antje Heise.
The nursing staff’s exit rate from work is 46 percent. Almost half of those trained change jobs or drop out entirely.
Michael Jordi, general secretary of the cantonal health directors (GDK), welcomes the cantonal initiatives: “Because the nursing staff recruited shouldn’t have to commute far to work if possible.” Health workers are also responding broadly; he noted a great commitment. Numerous specialist societies, which now do without election interventions, would voluntarily make their resources and those of the practice staff available wherever possible.
The Federal Council also reacted to the impending shortage of staff and temporarily suspended provisions on working hours and breaks for doctors and nursing staff, which unions criticize violently.
Earlier complaints by the professional associations for insufficient resources and training places were always reverberated. “But now is not the time to blame,” says SBK managing director Yvonne Ribi, who lives in the canton of Zurich and may also have to move in. The fact is that the nursing staff’s exit rate from the profession is 46 percent. Almost half of those trained change jobs or drop out entirely.
Just over 130,000 nurses work in hospitals, old people’s homes or at Spitex throughout Switzerland. There are no figures on how many are no longer at work. There should be many. The Professional Association of Nursing Professionals (SBK) therefore launched a popular initiative in 2017, which aims to oblige the federal government and the cantons to train more qualified nursing staff.
“Applause is not enough”
Former nurse Christine G. also says that applause for healthcare workers is good and right. But the recognition must also be reflected in practice. “When this crisis is over, we have to make lasting changes in our healthcare system.”
For the moment, she suggests, the canton could make a contribution to the health of the nursing staff by providing them with fruit juices and healthy snacks in the break room.
Created: 03/22/2020, 08:41 PM
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