Evrard said the pandemic has further exposed the shortage that Aleps has been highlighting for decades.
Currently, 30% of the nursing staff in the Grand Duchy hold Luxembourgish nationality. The rest come from abroad. According to Evrard, it is difficult to put a figure on the lack of care workers, as well as the number of people that need to be trained.
However, Evrard also admitted that Luxembourg is far from being the only country which is dealing with this issue as the shortage is global and affects all health professions. He criticised successive Luxembourg governments for not listening, and said that current Minister of Education Claude Meisch unfortunately maintained the "brevet de technicien supérieur" (BTS) - the advanced technician's certificate for vocational occupations such as nursing. For years, Aleps has been calling for the introduction of a bachelor's degree for nurses, in order to re-evaluate the profession and make it more attractive. Other countries have already done this, while in Luxembourg, the healthcare professions unfortunately have not received the recognition they deserve, according to Evrard.
In regard to the involvement of LTPS (Lycée technique pour professions de santé - the technical school for healthcare professionals) students in the health reserve, Evrard stated that it must be guaranteed that the students will be able to follow the objectives of their training. This was a problem during the first wave of the current pandemic. Nevertheless, it was a good experience for the majority of the students. The next few weeks would show whether such a measure would again be necessary during the second wave.
