The main union of National Education nurses is organizing an “Extraordinary National Congress” on Tuesday to make the voices of these professionals, the majority of whom are women, heard. Actions are also planned before the rectorates in the afternoon.
After 9 hours of work, Samia, 46, has just finished an exhausting day. 45 students came to consult her in the college where she works in Noisy-le-Grand (Seine-Saint-Denis) – dependent on the Créteil academy. Samia is a nurse at the National Education, one of the 1300 in Île-de-France.
“I take care of 2000 students, from kindergarten to 3rd“, says the one who is also departmental secretary of SNICS-FSU, the majority union of nurses in National Education. She has been practicing her profession since 2005… for 17 years. She describes her daily life: “all the ills of society come back like a boomerang within our establishments. Each time we open our door, we do not know what situation we are going to discover through a physical or psychological illness. It’s like the emergency room“.
We are there to welcome the students, listen to them, guide them and care for them.
And in the face of it all “we have to be damn balanced (psychologically, editor’s note)”, she adds. Because being a nurse in a school is not just at give medicine for a headache or cure injuries committed during recess.
“We see everything: physical and verbal violence, rumors pursuing certain students, children who witness domestic violence, repeated suicidal thoughts, watching pornographic films, even prostitution via social networks…“Samia list, indicating that “without an interlocutor, these situations are perhaps not approached, treated. We are here to welcome students, listen to them, guide them and care for them.“. The nurses of theEducation also provide prevention actions with regard to pupils and students: the fight against homophobia and harassment, information on contraception, the notions of consent or even the Internet and its dangers.
However, Samia, like many other school nurses, faces difficulties in the field. “to ensure correct and regular follow-up of the young people we have taken care of, in particular due to a lack of means. One emergency chases another. This is a situation that is not tolerable. What we are missing are massive job creations“. Taking the example of the Academy of Créteil, she explains that“we tend to redeploy rather than create a position“. “This leads to a loss of meaning. Pain at work. It feels like clogging, sprinkling, instead of doing real follow-up work“she hammers.
Samia also mentions the “training issues“National Education nurses and tools.”I don’t have a printer or access to the copier. I have to lug around a laptop every day. I have to have a rolling suitcase with all my nursing opinions, my documents. I don’t even have a nail to hang up posters or the eye chart. We work in a nomadic and rather precarious way“she says.
Faced with this situation, the National Education nurses decided to make their voices heard. In a press release, the SNICS-FSU calls on them to meet in “en extraordinary national congress“in the morning of this tuesday march 22. This congress takes the form of a press conference by videoconference. It brings together several other education unions such as VL, UNEF, FCPE, FSU but also “experts“.
The SNICS-FSU also called for actions before the rectorates in the afternoon for Île-de-France: the academies of Paris, Versailles and Créteil. They “aim to request additional resources so as to be able to meet the needs of the pupils“, says Sylvie Magne, deputy general secretary of the SNICS-FSU union. Nurses denounce a lack of means “as needs explode“. “Alerted for many months, the government refuses to implement a real emergency plan for the school“, continues the press release from SNICS, adding that “lhe physical and mental health of young people is deteriorating and with it the future of our society.”
“We are asking for more resources to be able to strengthen nursing consultations in schools. We had carried out 18 million consultations at the request of students according to statistics from 2018/2019. So we see that there is a demand“, explains Sylvie Magne, deputy general secretary of the SNICS-FSU union. She indicates that “all studies show that the state of health of students has worsened with the health crisis, the war in Ukraine and other anxiety-provoking elements“.
We are asking for massive job creation. But for that, the profession must be attractive. However, we are among the lowest paid nurses in France.
Sylvie Magne, Deputy General Secretary SNICS-FSU
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Faced with this situation, “we ask that there be at least one nurse post per establishment so that students have access to this possibility. We are as close as possible to where they live and we are sometimes the first resort when access to care is difficult.“adds the deputy general secretary of SNICS. “We are asking for massive job creation. But for that, the profession must be attractive. However, we are among the lowest paid nurses in France“she adds.
According to the figures put forward by the union, the salary “Medium” of a school nurse is 1331 euros per month, or 15,972 euros per year. Figures different from those put forward by theNational Education on its website. “We see colleagues who leave National Education or have looked elsewhere because working conditions have deteriorated and salaries are not keeping up.“.
Another claim, “the creation of a nursing master’s degree – health adviser (ICS) within the INSPE, which would allow the recognition of the nursing specialty by National Education“, adds Samia.
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