Quality life healthcare students

The quality of life for healthcare students (QVES) is a growing concern, both in universities and training institutes as well as on internship sites, particularly in healthcare facilities. Numerous surveys are regularly conducted among students from the various medical (MMOP: medicine, maïeutics, dentistry, pharmacy) and paramedical (nurses, nursing aides, physiotherapists, podiatrists, occupational therapists, etc.) disciplines. Although not methodologically robust, these surveys clearly show an increase in the ill-being of these students, exacerbated by the Covid crisis and in particular due to five major sources: 

• gender-based and sexual violence (GBSV), which was the subject of a national action plan in higher education and research in 2021;
• the psychosocial risks (PSR) towards which other sources of ill-being converge, which can take many forms, fatigue, loss of direction, failure, depression as well as suicidal risk;
• financial insecurity, exacerbated by the crisis, which healthcare students may experience, whose incomes are limited and can rarely be complemented by employment given the increasing heavy workload of the curriculum;
• the working conditions in internships, during which the student must be supervised and achieve a quality of working life (QWL) in order to put theoretical learning into practice, progress towards autonomy and thrive in a profession serving the sick;
• addictions, the growing problem of using various substances, which are supposed to calm stress and help overcome pressure, but which themselves are a source of failure, health and psychosocial risks, sometimes GBSV, particularly in a recreational setting, and insecurity.

The creation of the National Support Centre for the Quality of Life of Healthcare Students (CNA) in July 2019 on the recommendation of psychiatrist Dr Donata Mara’s report, and under her chairmanship, has brought about the structuring of an organisation aimed at identifying good practices, making recommendations, training trainers and building a territorial network of "CNA references". A national counselling and guidance platform, with psychologists and social workers, equipped with a website, a number and an email address, was set up in April 2021 at the request of the Ministries of Health and Higher Education.