The SARS‐CoV‐2 epidemic, a step towards recognizing the speciality of critical care nursing in France

In France, before the pandemic, approximatively 480 ICU beds nationally remained closed because of the shortage of nurses. A high turnover of nurses is observed in French ICUs,11 undoubtedly due to the work conditions (frequent night shifts and weekend work), the absence of specific recognition as a critical care nurse (especially compared with numerous European countries), poor pay (remuneration below the French average wage4), and the absence of a professional critical care nurse educational program. Currently, French nurses develop critical care specific skills through on-the-job training. This approach is far from that recommended by the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses, back in 2005, which stressed that critically ill patients have very special needs and must be cared for by nurses with specialist skills, knowledge, and attitudes12 In France, the few courses for critical care nurses that exist are locally delivered and heterogeneous in their content and assessment. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, French critical care medical societies supported the positions and the claims of the critical care nurses. More than ever, they underlined the numerous skills ICU nurses possess and how unrecognized they are. In addition to highlighting the wide range of skills these nurses have, they stressed how these skills (or lack of them) may affect patient outcomes.