Working on the edge between life and death: pediatric intensive care on Ward 67 of Hannover Medical School.
Reportage with Dominik Stawski & Nico Schnurr for stern 24/2024
Children in German hospitals are at risk due to staff shortages.
An intensive care unit in Hanover is fighting back against this catastrophe.
How many more nurses will have to resign, how many more children will have to die before something changes?
The shortage of nursing staff has become so acute that it can cost children's lives.
We have witnessed a fatal downward spiral: the pressure on nurses is increasing.
If someone leaves the team because of this, everything becomes even worse for those who remain.
Doctors face ethical dilemmas almost every day: should we admit this child even though the nursing team is overworked? Or do we say no and refer them to other clinics, knowing that this will reduce the child's chances of survival?
For four months, we followed the situation at Ward 67. It is the largest pediatric intensive care unit in Germany.
Here, children fight for their lives around the clock. But what is lacking are nurses.
As a result, Ward 67 can often only fill half of its beds, and patient rooms stand empty, even though they are urgently needed.
It is a grueling and never-ending extreme situation caused by decades of mismanagement in the healthcare system.
And yet, there is still not enough social awareness to adequately address this crisis.
Working on the edge between life and death: pediatric intensive care on Ward 67 of Hannover Medical School.
Reportage with Dominik Stawski & Nico Schnurr for stern 24/2024
Children in German hospitals are at risk due to staff shortages.
An intensive care unit in Hanover is fighting back against this catastrophe.
How many more nurses will have to resign, how many more children will have to die before something changes?
The shortage of nursing staff has become so acute that it can cost children's lives.
We have witnessed a fatal downward spiral: the pressure on nurses is increasing.
If someone leaves the team because of this, everything becomes even worse for those who remain.
Doctors face ethical dilemmas almost every day: should we admit this child even though the nursing team is overworked? Or do we say no and refer them to other clinics, knowing that this will reduce the child's chances of survival?
For four months, we followed the situation at Ward 67. It is the largest pediatric intensive care unit in Germany.
Here, children fight for their lives around the clock. But what is lacking are nurses.
As a result, Ward 67 can often only fill half of its beds, and patient rooms stand empty, even though they are urgently needed.
It is a grueling and never-ending extreme situation caused by decades of mismanagement in the healthcare system.
And yet, there is still not enough social awareness to adequately address this crisis.