The health crisis and the revelations about the operation of certain nursing homes have done nothing to attract vocations to old age professions. However, the needs continue to grow and the shortage of staff is worrying.
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All professions combined, and not only in the old age sector, there is a shortage of 100,000 caregivers in France. This shortage is considered serious by nine out of ten French people, according to a study of 2,000 people by L’Appel medical, a recruitment specialist in this sector, and by the Cercle Vulnérabilités et Société, a think tank. One out of two French people fears a deterioration in the quality of care and a third of those questioned are also worried about the quality of life at work of these professionals.
However, these professions have a good image. On the one hand, 97% of respondents recognize their particular human qualities. On the other hand, and in roughly the same overwhelming proportions, it is said that to exercise them requires a special vocation and that they are especially meaningful. Nine out of ten French people still consider them “poorly considered”, “poorly recognized” by society, exhausting, exhausting and insufficiently paid. Only 16% of French people would be ready to exercise them.
For the youngest, these professions tend to become “jobs like any other”, although they consider them too poorly paid. Having time for quality exchanges with the elderly and doing a job recognized for its human value could attract them to these professions.
There are avenues for reflection to fight against the shortage of vocations. One of them is to create more bridges between old age professions, which are organized in silos. It would be necessary, for example, to recognize the experience of caregivers to enable them to become nurses more quickly or to open up the possibility for animators in nursing homes to join health professions. Gateways that do not exist today.