Munich: How young nurses are trained in Munich – Munich
“Care Anne” lies in bed. In a nightgown under a white and blue striped blanket. Nina Zick gently slides her right hand down the neck of the simulation doll and lifts it gently. “Exactly like that!” praises trainer Stefanie Johnen, 47. Zick is 23. She is doing a three-year apprenticeship as a nursing specialist at the Munich vocational school for nursing. She made a conscious decision to pursue this career path.
In January, in the middle of the fifth Corona wave, Bavaria’s Health and Care Minister Klaus Holetschek is looking for volunteers for hospitals or old people’s and nursing homes. Because there are still so many nurses missing. According to the Federal Statistical Office, many contracts for three-year “general nursing training” to become a nursing specialist were concluded in 2020, but many were also terminated. Nina Zick will not dissolve any contract. Nina will stick with it.
Carolin Schnizer, Principal of the Munich vocational school for nursing on Neumarkter Straße, but confirmed: “Many trainees drop out after the first year.” In 2021 it was 23 percent at her school. Most of the time the students would do this after they had had their first practical experience. If you suspect that the care is “highly complex”. It is about holistic, people-oriented care, which for the 43-year-old means above all: “You need a high level of social skills”.
The three-year training not only includes mandatory assignments in inpatient acute and long-term care or in an outpatient care facility, but also in pediatrics. And because people have longer life expectancies, cases in aged care are mandatory, as is geriatric psychiatric care, which deals with old people with conditions like dementia. “All of this,” says Schnizer, “is a big challenge for young people who start their training after they have finished high school.”
“I don’t know if I would have thought I could do it when I was 16,” admits Nina Zick. In September 2021 she started the first year of training. Actually, she is a tourism clerk. But she was always really interested in people, in medicine. You have completed a voluntary social year in a clinic. Then she got Corona. In the clinic she saw what nurses can do. “Without care, nothing works,” she says. You register at the vocational school. The challenge Schnizer talked about is exactly what Nina Zick loves about this job.
Not everyone thinks so. Many, says the 23-year-old, only associate clichés with the job. According to the motto: “You only wash the sick all!” or “You’re just handing out medicine”. Zick was annoyed that the nursing profession was “badly talked about”. “How to treat someone well is a big responsibility.” Six trainees out of 30 dropped out in Zick’s class. They don’t think it’s the money. The training salary, which is between 1116 and 1300 euros gross for the first three years, is enough for her. And the starting salary, confirms Carolin Schnizer, is “quite decent”. Depending on the provider of the facilities, 2800 to 3500 euros are now paid gross. There are also shift allowances.
How attractive is the job for young people? Christian Wiedemann, who has been working for the city in job and training acquisition for nursing since May 2021, believes that the interest in nursing professions “is actually there”. Despite Corona. It’s just that most of them know far too little about the job and the training opportunities. The unexpected advertising is “a big problem”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/.”In the past ten to 15 years, nursing professions have not been advertised at all in schools.” The 48-year-old is now trying to make up for the omission. He goes to schools. With flyers, with videos.
Most drop out because the strain is too great
I am “cafe care” he also advises young refugees and migrants once a week in the Bellevue di Monaco – live and in hybrid sessions. He takes care of the job and training fair for nursing and runs digital information events. For those who have been with us for a long time, for trainers and newcomers. No question remains unanswered. Wiedemann listens patiently. He knows what’s up. He himself is a qualified nursing service specialist in the clinical field.
How many patients are actually cared for by a nurse, what the working conditions are like, how motivated they are, whether there are cheap apartments for nurses – according to Wiedemann, a lot is still a mess. “Most of those who are just getting out do so because the strain is just too great,” says the famous headmistress Stefanie Johnen. Nursing professionals have little time left for patients and are often unable to apply what they have learned. That’s frustrating. Another problem: There is no established interest group, i.e. a nursing chamber. That’s what Wiedemann and Carolin Schnizer want.
“Care Anne” is brand new. Not even programmed yet. Otherwise she could even speak. In the simulation center she will soon have her training arm ready to measure her blood pressure. A “modernization of the training content” and “better equipment for nursing schools” as provided for in the Nursing Professions Act 2020 is, as Schnizer says, “the most important thing” for development in nursing. And the city is now investing in its vocational schools. “Something’s happening too”. Towards the future.