Fnopi Report: "Nurses in home care are more satisfied"

The most satisfied nurses are those who work in the home care context, in the territory, compared to those who work in the hospital, especially if they are not sufficiently involved in the management processes. In terms of salaries, the best paid professionals are in Trentino Alto Adige and Emilia Romagna, with the lowest salaries in Campania and Molise. This is what emerges from the first Report on nursing professions, produced by Fnopi - National Federation of Nursing Professions Orders in collaboration with the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa and illustrated today in Rome, at Palazzo Rospigliosi.

Scrolling through the pages of the report, an identikit of the profession is drawn in which the ratio between nurses and inhabitants is lower in the two extremes of the Peninsula: Sicily and Lombardy. Those who work in a home and hospital context are gratified, but only if they are involved in the management processes. Many continue to choose the public sector, with a peak of interest of 84.9% in 2018. In 2023 - it says - 78.9% of graduates prefer the public sector, indicating a constant high preference for this option. The feedback acquired on patient satisfaction for factors such as involvement in decisions (78 out of 100), clarity and usefulness of the information received (91 out of 100), respect and dignity (94 out of 100), emotional support (95 out of 100) is very positive. Training is the key to making the profession more attractive: the average age of graduates is decreasing (25.2 years), the number of high school students choosing Nursing is increasing (68%) and the demand for master's degrees is growing. 92.3% of those who complete training find work in a field consistent with their studies.

In this first edition, the report aims to collect and certify the main evidence available on nurses in Italy, comparing it with the European framework and analyzing the situation of individual regions. "For the Federation, this document represents the first, important, step to present the official evidence on which policies regarding nurses must be rooted - says Fnopi president Barbara Mangiacavalli - We want to ensure that our report is present on the desks of decision makers from year to year, available to acquire reliable data on our profession. The goal is to transform data into information, because information is needed to make decisions that, in our case, cannot be the exclusive responsibility of a single ministry. The complexity of the nursing issue requires the establishment of a control room with extraordinary powers capable of involving multiple top-level structures and touching on different areas of intervention to definitively address a problem that does not belong to a single professional category, but to Italy as a whole".

The 4 sections that make up the report, and that explore all the dimensions of the profession, were illustrated by the professors and researchers of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna: Milena Vainieri, Sabina Nuti (former rector) and Lorenzo Taddeucci. From the point of view of the adoption of the Ministerial Decree 77, at the regional level there is no uniform and standardized practice, but a lot of fragmentation. The definitions also change depending on the territories. Only Lazio, Lombardy, Sardinia and Tuscany use the definition 'Family and Community Nurse' (IFeC), suggesting an integrated model that encompasses both areas. All the others choose 'Family or Community Nurse' (IFoC), which could indicate greater flexibility in the functions and operating methods.

Training is confirmed as the strong point and turning point for the development of the nursing profession. The data on the progressive decrease in the average age at the three-year degree is significant, which goes from a higher percentage for the age group over 27 years in 2004 to concentrated in the age group under 23 to 24 years in 2023 (36.1%), settling at an average age of 25.2 years. An interesting evolution is also noted in the origin of the students, emerges from the report: in the most recent years there has been a significant increase in the percentage of students enrolled in Nursing coming from high schools, which in 2023, represented 68.2% of those enrolled. Equally significant is the data for 2023, with 92.3% of master's graduates having found work in a field consistent with their studies, highlighting a close connection between the academic path of the master's degree and the work environment.