FILE. Laurence Soulas, independent nurse: “I am optimistic, negotiations will resume”

Laurence Soulas, nurse: “We've been waiting for this law for a long time”. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

What does the health world expect from the new government?? The dissolution blocked a bill to reestablish the nursing profession and studies, eagerly awaited by the profession, which was to be tabled in June. Like her 120,000 liberal colleagues, Laurence Soulas, a liberal nurse in Hérault, expects “recognition” of her skills.

“The dissolution took place on Sunday, June 9, the bill for the overhaul of the profession and training of nurses, the new roadmap that we had been working on for months, was to be tabled a few days later…” Jean-François Bouscarain, representative of nurses at the Union of Health Professionals (URPS) of Occitanie, sets the framework.

“'Rageant", for Laurence Soulas: “We have been waiting for this law for a long time”.

A freelance nurse in Combaillaux, on the outskirts of Montpellier, she expects two things from it:“Recognition”, and the overhaul of rates “frozen since 2009”. The first before the second: “We are aware that health demands were very high at the time of the Covid crisis, and we are still being opposed to the very high volume of our acts. This is less and less audible while everything has increased, starting with fuel. Health is expensive, it is France's DNA. But we want to fight on other fronts, and in particular the opening up to new skills, the recognition of our expertise”, explains the fifty-year-old, a former dietician in “search for meaning”, which he still finds in his new profession, practiced in the hospital in geriatrics, intensive care, palliative care, then, from 2010, in private practice.

“Recognizing our skills also means freeing up medical time”

Vaccination, death certificates, prevention assessments… the new skills of nurses are expanding, “there is progress”, admits Laurence Soulas.

But she wants to go further, in particular, on the complex management of patients' wounds, for which the profession is demanding “direct access”. "It is clear that the profession has evolved, we must evolve with it, in a health system in great suffering, and in difficulty in many areas, which risks collapsing".

“We are among the last health professionals to intervene at home, we are a link with the outside world for those in the most precarious situations. There is no nursing desert,” reminds the nurse, who is waiting for clarification of the situations and asks “politicians to make decisions”.

Because the issues are intertwined : “Recognizing our skills also means freeing up medical time and preventing emergency rooms from becoming congested.” “I am optimistic, negotiations will resume", hopes the nurse.

Reassured by the Directorate General for Health Care Provision (DGOS) in discussions that continued during the summer, Jean-François Bouscarain was assured that “the file remained at the top of the pile”. It is up to the minister to take charge of it: “Without politicians, nothing is possible”.

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