In an interview with Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim, intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange relentlessly talked about the working conditions in his job. He says: “As soon as I can, I’ll be out of this job.”
The Corona crisis has drawn a lot of attention to the nursing care situation in Germany. Also the stern is committed to improving working conditions and has submitted one to the German Bundestag entitled “Care needs dignity”, which more than 250,000 people have signed. But despite all the promises made by politics, there is still little progress to be seen. This is also shown in a new video by science journalist and Youtuber Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim.
Nguyen-Kim, who mainly explains scientific topics on her YouTube channel and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for this last year, describes the situation in drastic words: The situation has eased compared to the height of the Corona crisis , but still “just sucks”. Many nurses are extremely dissatisfied with the working conditions and pay in their professional field and are considering leaving.
Bad pay, hardly any social life, low reputation
Intensive care nurse Ricardo Lange also says: “As soon as I can, I’ll be out of this job.” Lange had repeatedly drawn attention to the precarious situation in nursing during the pandemic, including on talk shows or the federal press conference. In the meantime, since the corona situation has subsided, the public is losing more and more interest in the topic, according to his observation. The grievances that existed before the pandemic, however, remain.
For a long time, nursing workers have been paid below average and are also less viewed, as Nguyen-Kim shows: “There is an imbalance here that leads to frustration and dissatisfaction.” Nursing staff not only perform work that is extremely important for society, but also often do their job under great stress. “You don’t even know how to do all of this,” reports intensive care nurse Lange, who often has to look after three or four seriously ill patients at the same time – instead of two, as actually specified. Often he also has to step in on the weekend off: “You give up your own social life in order to be able to help the patient.”
For nurses, however, it is also difficult to evade this, says Lange: “You have to know that you are always emotionally blackmailed because you have a responsibility for the life and health of people who depend on our help.”
Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim: “Politics must address working conditions”
However, all of this is far too rarely seen in society. Lange demands of himself and his colleagues to appear more self-confident in public: “We also have a health and a private life. Only when we value ourselves can we demand the same from others.” Measured against the responsibility that he and other caregivers have in their job, he considers the payment to be “not appropriate”. For Lange, the poor wages are also a reason for the shortage of nursing staff. He himself is also thinking about a change of profession – the man from Brandenburg often doubts his job: “I want to take care of seriously ill people. But when I have to reveal my own claims and see how patients suffer, then I often ask myself : What is the point of your work? “
Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim’s conclusion: “Here politics must finally get to grips with the working conditions.” So he demands stern With his care petition, among other things, more time for patients, an upgrading of the job description through higher salaries and better career opportunities, as well as a consistent move away from profit-making and false economic incentives.
