Pupils get excited about elderly care is not easy – ‘Animals don’t whine, patients are’

« With a stethoscope you measure the heartbeat and breathing, » reads guest teacher Monique Duinhouwer for her quiz card. « Where or not true? » In the classroom, approval and disapproval sounds. « A lift to move people is called a tow lift » is the next statement. This time in unison: « No, that’s a hoist! »

At the Pieter Zeeman Lyceum in Zierikzee, elderly nurses Nine Scheffer and Monique Duinhouwer give a guest lesson to students who follow the VMBO profile care and welfare. The lesson is part of the national campaign ‘Generation Zorg’ of Professional Association V&VN (Nurses and Carers Netherlands), which wants to make young people enthusiastic about a job in healthcare.

More inflow is desperately needed, because the healthcare sector- from hospitals to general practitioners, from youth- to the elderly- is struggling with a shortage of staff. And that shortage is only becoming more acute. The problems are known: a large part of the employees will retire in the coming years. In addition, many leave the profession because of the high workload. And although young people certainly enter, there are not nearly enough.

To turn the tide, the government has been investing 500 million euros a year since 2023 to make healthcare work more attractive, such as better internship guidance and schedules that are better tailored to the wishes of employees. Care organizations with social media campaigns also try to reach young people, where working in healthcare is packaged in hopefully appealing statements: « Are you a born Captain? Come make sure! »

There is also a great need for MBO students with a care diploma in nursing homes. They form the heart of daily care: they help residents in getting up, washing and dressing, giving medication, signaling health changes and maintaining contact with family members.

To get those care-MBO students, the first place is important that there is sufficient enthusiasm on the VMVOPEN pipes. Pupils aged fifteen or sixteen have made the choice to continue in elderly care. Or not. A day of walking with guest teachers Nine Scheffer and Monique Duinhouwer makes it clear that the enthusiasm for this part of the care is hard to find under this age group.

Bit tormented

In the classroom at the school in Zierikzee there is a nursing bed and a doll in the corner. The face – open mouth, big eyes – looks shocked in the room. The doll, which is as heavy as a real person, serves as practice material. « Our class has been practicing for six weeks with how to get someone out of a wheelchair and put them in bed, » says Maryorie (15). Bit boring, the students think.

Maryorie thinks it is useful to be able to perform ‘care operations’ later, but she mainly chose the Care and Welfare profile because this is the most versatile. « Here you also learn to cut, beauty, cooking and dealing with children, » she says. Her girl next door Quinty (15) adds: compares: « You really only learn to cook at the hospitality industry, bakery and recreation. »

That washing is only ten percent of my work

The students can practice with how to build a connection and water. While drinking cups get hand to hand, the conversations stell the conversations. What do they want to be later? The one wants to put tattoos. The other wants to paint nails. Maryorie prefers to become a stewardess. « Mental health care also seems like something to me. Then I don’t have to work with bodies, » she says.

In the back is a group of horse lovers. They talk about washing people and cleaning up shit – things they would rather avoid. Although they admit that they love to empty a stable. « Because animals don’t nag, » says one of them. « Patients do. »

Vulnerable moments

After the lesson, the nurses say that they recognize the sounds from the class. They see how many young people think that care is mainly about cleaning and that this also yields little appreciation. « Washing is only ten percent of my work, » says Scheffer. A poll by V&VN professional association among more than two thousand nurses, carers and nursing specialists shows that almost three -quarters of them work in healthcare to be able to mean something for people at vulnerable moments. They call it motivating and grateful work.

For Scheffer, elderly care is mainly about proximity. « With patients and their families I am talking about how you make someone’s last phase bearable and meaningful, » she says. Duinhouwer talks about when the work hit her. Like a man who as a child as a child experienced the 1953 flood disaster told her how he had let his baby brother slip out of his hands. He had never talked to anyone about it.

An hour earlier, Duinhouwer closed the quiz with the position: « A nurse specialist is a nurse who takes over a number of tasks from the doctor. Where or not true? » Even before she can confirm that it is true, Jazzlyn already claps in her hands. « Hoppa, everything good! » She is sixteen and knows what she wants to be later. Something with care? « No dude, » she says. « I am becoming a police on horseback! Then I can drift people away instead of helping. »

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