They transport patients to their exams and transport them from the emergency room to the floors. A key position, especially in times of crisis. Portrait of a stretcher-bearer.
“I do the ‘taxi’ in the hospital! François Poulin, 50, walks quickly towards the emergency room. The stretcher-bearer must pick up a patient and transport her to the second floor, where she will undergo an electrocardiogram. “There are no orange cones here,” he laughs. But you have to do small slaloms. »
It’s jammed in the emergency room of the Verdun hospital on this Monday morning in December. Stretcher patients — mostly elderly — line a hallway near the nurses’ station. The occupancy rate exceeds 180%.
Despite the traffic and obstacles, François Poulin manages to get the patient out of her room. The path is narrow. To negotiate a turn, he must move a trash can and ask colleagues – who are disinfecting a stretcher and a wall – to move away.
“You often have to pack things up,” he says, walking and pushing the stretcher toward the elevator. “The important thing is to keep the patient safe. »
Ensure, for example, that patients on oxygen have “a full tank” before bringing them for an examination. “It shouldn’t empty while they wait,” he explains.
The important thing is to keep the patient safe.
The elevator stops at the second floor. François Poulin rolls the stretcher – “here, you have to give yourself a boost” – and parks the patient in a “parking lot” (a rectangle delimited by yellow lines on the ground) in front of the room where she will perform her “treadmill” . He activates the brake and signals the arrival of the patient to a technician.
His mission complete, he picks up a phone and takes note of the next assignment using an automated system. Direction: fifth floor. He must recover a patient there so that she undergoes a computed tomography (a “scan”).
“We each do at least thirty races a day,” said the team leader of the Verdun stretcher bearers. That equates to an average of 18,000 steps per shift, he says. “You have to be in good shape! said François Poulin, eyes sky blue like his uniform and running shoes.
An essential position
In Quebec, 202 workers in the health network hold the job title of stretcher bearer, according to the Ministry of Health and Social Services.
This position remains unknown to the general public, but represents an essential link in the chain of the health network. These “internal hospital taxis” transport patients who need to undergo examinations or be transferred from the emergency room to the floors when a space becomes available. Every minute counts to unclog hospitals.
“The priority is always not to keep the patient waiting,” says François Poulin. Sometimes, when you’re sick, the patience isn’t there. »
François Poulin is doing as fast as he can. He knows all the shortcuts to the Verdun hospital, where he has worked for thirty years, ten of which as a stretcher-bearer.
However, he must deal with “imponderables”. “Sometimes the elevator breaks down,” he said. It’s like the Montreal metro. »
Some races are also longer than others. At the Verdun hospital, the seven stretcher-bearers are trained as patient attendants, which allows them to transfer patients from a stretcher (or a wheelchair) to a hospital bed by following the “principles for safe movement of beneficiaries”. These maneuvers may require more time when the patient is less mobile.
During our visit, François Poulin helped an elderly man – from the emergency room – to take a few steps to his bed in palliative care. “Don’t worry, you’ll use me like a walker!” he told her, once the patient was standing. ” It’s okay ? Not too dizzy? The stretcher-bearer helped him sit on his mattress, then a fellow patient attendant installed him.
François Poulin appreciates his exchanges with the patients, despite the brevity of the contacts. “Sometimes we’re the only people they confide in,” he says. They have just received bad news and they confide in us. »
Other patients take advantage of the trip to share their concerns. “We try to reassure them to the best of our knowledge,” he says. If I can’t answer their questions, I tell them, “Don’t worry, everything will be fine. At the top, feel free to ask questions before entering. It’s your right.” »
Sometimes we’re the only people they [les patients] confide. They have just received bad news and they confide in us.
Back in the stretcher-bearers’ room, François Poulin sits on a chair while waiting for another call. Several colleagues are there, including Lydia Cintas, a stretcher-bearer for five years. Questioned by The dutyshe says that she was previously a beneficiary attendant in Verdun’s intensive care unit.
“It was much more physical and, there, I arrive at my ‘grandma’ stage. I’m learning to walk with patients in front, ”jokes the woman with graying hair, under general laughter.
The task may be less tiring than that of the beneficiary attendants, but some patients are heavy to transport, the team says. Some trips require electric stretchers, specifies François Poulin.
The stretcher-bearer uses it when he goes to the “annex”, a modular unit connected to the main building by a walkway reminiscent of an airport. “There is a slope,” he said. We ask for the electric stretcher to avoid injuries and losing control. »
Traffic is dense in the corridors, veritable boulevards that people sometimes cross with their eyes riveted on their cellphones. Elevators can also be crowded. “We try to tell people, we’re sorry, we need the elevator, it’s priority for patients, says François Poulin. Some are stubborn and don’t want to let us go. Sometimes you have to be firm, while remaining respectful, of course. »
François Poulin has never regretted his position as stretcher-bearer. He counts “on the fingers of one hand” the days when he did not want to “go home”, he says.
The stretcher-bearers “reduce a little” the task of the orderlies who, if they were not there, would have to take the patients to their examinations. “In the current context, it would be crazy, he thinks. They would be even more tired, more burnt out. Patients would suffer too. “There are a lot of people who would wait even longer for their exam…”