Aceti (Salutequità): "First report on nursing reality is a milestone"

'All stakeholders will be able and will have to engage in light of the evidence'

"The first report on nursing professions is a milestone for the profession because, from now on, both the nursing community, the decision-makers community and the other stakeholders will be able and will have to commit to choices that have to do with nurses starting from evidence. This is the truly innovative scope of the report". Tonino Aceti, president of Salutequità, said this to Adnkronos Salute at the presentation of the first report on nursing professions, today in Rome.

The report shows that it is "a profession that is now mature - observes Aceti - intellectually very strong, so much so that" many students coming "from high school prefer Nursing Sciences at university. This is a very important element because it tells us that it is a profession that is strengthening its intellectual part". But this growth, warns the expert, "must be capitalized by accompanying it with an increase in attention from the institutions, with targeted investments" because "this profession is the backbone of the public health service". In order not to let the National Health Service collapse, something that "we really cannot afford", the nursing issue must "absolutely be addressed by intervening on remuneration, skills, specializations, career progression, research, gender equity, work-life balance", thus increasing its attractiveness.

Then there is the issue of "the availability of this very important profession in all regions of Italy - Aceti highlights - It is a problem in terms of equity of access to the care and assistance that citizens need in the hospital and territorial setting. This is a very critical element - he underlines - We must ensure that nurses are available, according to the standards, in all territories, in all regions, in all settings", overcoming "the inequalities that exist today in terms of numbers, skills, salaries, career progression and gender equity. I believe that the issue of equity in the nursing profession - he concludes - is a central element to be resolved, as it is in general in the NHS".