VIDEO. The daily life of Clémence, intern in obstetrics gynecology

“Physically, I hold on because I love what I do and I wouldn’t change jobs.”. Clémence is an intern in the specialty she wanted to practice, that of obstetrics gynecology. In constant contact with women, offering them the joy of giving birth is an aspect of the job that she particularly likes. But as an intern, Clémence’s future job also includes constraints that make her daily life difficult at work.

“It feels like running the hospital”

At the Hautepierre hospital in Strasbourg, each department requires interns: “The hospital relies heavily on interns. We need it everywhere, in all specialties”. As a result, these professional apprentices have heavy responsibilities: “We manage a lot of things and those that are the most important, which require an opinion from a senior, we immediately call on our boss”. In his schedule, the weeks are very busy, some top out at 100 hours, other days stretch from 8 am until the next day at the same time. Business contingencies can also disrupt rest days.

Generally, Clémence works 70 hours a week for 1,700 euros gross in base salary and a bac +7. “It would be nice if we had some appreciation for what we do. We have the impression of holding the hospital, of having constant pressure, of putting our personal lives aside and behind, having a remuneration that is not necessarily up to what we could hope for”. Even if she expresses this disappointment, she reminds us that she chooses this profession to care for and help and not for the remuneration.

Intern in her department, Clémence also shares the difficulty of combining her classes, her work and her personal life: “We are still students in training. We still need to learn”. If his weeks of work are physically demanding, they are also mentally demanding. His specialty generally offers him “Immense joys” but can, in certain cases, be accompanied by penalties that must be apprehended: “It’s a pretty intense job where you have to manage everything, people’s emotions, our own emotions and our accumulated fatigue”.