As I predicted: I know why I got so angry about all that applause for nurses and hospital staff weeks ago. Cheap waste of time. The following is from an intensive care nurse working on a corona station in Berlin. Like many other nurses, he is desillusionised, and angry. On average Germna jurses must work 5-10 years longer than colleagues in other countries, and are so badly paid that they face an above-average risk of high age poverty after retirement. At the same time the job they do, even without Corona, is a bone wrecker. Nurses in caretaking homes for elde rpeopel now got a 1000 Euros payment: No regular raise for wages, not more personell being hired).
The "demonstration" that it is about. Last Sunday in Berlin:
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Originally Posted by https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/intensivpfleger-ueber-rave-vor-krankenhaus-kann-man-unsere-arbeit-noch-mehr-verhoehnen/25882328.html
"Can our work get ridiculed even more?"
(Techno fans recently demonstrated on the water, Ricardo Lange is a nurse in a Berlin intensive care unit.)
It was nine weeks ago that I complained about clapping people on the balconies. At the time I was afraid that the applause would not be followed by any action. Too bad I was right.
Nothing has sounded from the balconies for a long time. Techno has recently been buzzing from rubber dinghies across the Landwehr Canal. The videos of the celebrants in the urban harbor on Pentecost Sunday really took me away.
I understand that young people have some catching up to do. I understand that club operators are entrepreneurs who fear for their existence. But does such a party have to take place in front of a hospital?
Patients and their caregivers fight for life in them. People need rest. Even without Corona and the possible consequences of this rave, I ask myself: can we ridicule our work even more?
But also in terms of politics, what I feared has happened. Because we - fortunately - have a good grip on the pandemic in Germany, talk shows no longer discuss care.
Jens Spahn's [the German health ministre] promises of a "Corona Bonus" have only reached a part of the "everyday heroes", the outpatient and elderly care workers who deserve it, of course.
However, nothing has arrived for me and my colleagues in the intensive care units, even though we are among those who have been in close contact with Covid 19 patients for weeks. Eleven percent of all people infected with the virus in Germany work in medical professions - we are still exposed to a particular risk.
Our working conditions have also become more difficult due to the wearing of (sometimes incomplete) protective clothing. The applause remained as a sign of appreciation.
My wishes for politics have not changed, even if there were no mountains of corpses like in New York or Bergamo. Corona did show us that the need for care is serious.
Verdi [German union] assumes 80,000 full-time positions, and the Böckler Foundation [socialist foundation attached to the German unions] even assumes 100,000 full-time positions that are missing in clinics. Young colleagues who are trained by us often throw in the towel after a few weeks because the working conditions are too hard for them. And many of my colleagues are older and will soon retire, who's coming?
I know intensive care nurses who had to be quarantined because of unprotected contact with a Covid 19 patient, who according to the health authority were not even able to bring the garbage down without being fined - but still had to go to work (with the risk of infecting already weakened patients). The reason? Of course, lack of staff!
The state is supporting Lufthansa with nine billion euros, and the auto industry is to help a new purchase bonus. And U.S?
Retirement age should be reduced
I hope that the retirement age for caregivers in shift work will be reduced. 67 is too late - we've already lost so much of our lives.
I would like better pay for the core workforce at the clinics: Those who work shifts and are responsible for human life should, including surcharges, earn 3,000 euros net.
I also hope that Jens Spahn will introduce correct minimum staff levels. Because of Corona they were loosened up, but even before that they didn't fit in with reality: They were viewed as average values, and so it happened that in some shifts I had to look after four patients intensively - instead of a maximum of 2.5 patients per nurse in the day shift and 3.5 patients per caregiver in the night shift. That makes a huge difference!
[I know of nurses who look after a dozen patients, this means not he is asking too much, this means only that thign sare much, much worse in parts of Germany, Skybird].
We need a clear definition in absolute numbers. So: A maximum of two patients per caregiver in the day and three per caregiver in the night shift. Especially since a few hospitals understood the lower and upper limits and even reduced staff.
And I wish that the rubber boat orgy from last weekend had no consequences. Because although I read that the number of Covid 19 patients in the intensive care units is falling in some clinics - with us they have increased significantly since last week.
[Ricardo Lange works as a nurse in a Berlin intensive care unit. ]
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He says he wishes the partying plebs not to get ill. Well, I do. To drive by this hopefully some reason in their brutally egoist minds. Many will get infected by them who do not deserve it and are innocent, were not there. The R-value in Berlin last days was 1.9 and higher, is rising across all of Germany since almost a week, is above 1.0: it was down to 0.4 short time ago, and then the sun came out and stupid people flipped out. Christz9an Drosteh recently said he saw a chance that we could evade a second wave. That was before last weekend. If summer looks like this weekend's scenes, then he will soon eat his words.