To fight against violence against health professionals, the Limoges University Hospital has created two coats: white for doctors, blue for students.
Blue for medical students, white for doctors and interns. To fight against violence in hospitals, the CHU of Limoges (Haute-Vienne) proposes to differentiate between trainees and people capable of making decisions. His solution is simple: the traditional white coat will be reserved for trained people. The others will wear blue blouses.
An observation internship
At the origin of this initiative, the observation of the nursing teams: the patients become impatient with the students who observe them without lifting them. “All that the patient sees, who is stressed, anxious and who often suffers physically, is a bunch of white coats that remain there, seated, without rocking! So he loses his calm, when it’s not the family! », Summarizes to AFP Stéphane Cibert, health executive at the CHU. In Paris, for example, only a colored badge differentiates interns and doctors from students.
The externs are trainees participating in the diploma of advanced training in medical sciences (DFSAM). Lasting three years, this diploma requires four internships of three months each, in different specialized services. The trainees then learn to recognize the different signs of the disease through the example of their referent, an intern or a senior. They therefore do not have the right to examine patients.
“Many tensions”
But in practice, “it appeared that many tensions arose from patients’ ignorance of the functioning of a service such as emergencies,” recalls Stéphane Cibert. In this service, which receives an average of 50,000 patients per year, 12 medical students work in rotation. Failure to understand patients can result in verbal or physical violence. With this new system, the CHU hopes to further reduce slippage.
It must be said that the Limoges University Hospital is a pioneer in the prevention of violence against health professionals. Since 1995, self-defense courses have been provided to staff and training on the prevention of verbal violence has been offered. Hospital executives also work with patients: various displays aim to explain waiting times.
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