Nursing Up Union, "Nurses Poor, Humiliated and Exhausted"

"Poor, humiliated and exhausted nurses. Our profession has become a sentence, not a vocation". Antonio De Palma, president of the Nursing Up union, comments on the situation of the category on the occasion of International Nurses Day. A picture of economic unsustainability, aggression and mistrust, which has led to over 20 thousand voluntary resignations in just 9 months of 2024, +170% compared to 2023. An exodus that has its fulcrum in southern workers who emigrated to the North, who are now returning home because they are unable to live with rents that absorb almost the total of their salaries of 1500/1600 euros per month. Bologna, Milan, Venice: dozens of resignations every month, often without replacements. In Milan, the minimum threshold for living alone exceeds the average net salary of a nurse by 450 euros. "We are certified poor, fragile workers, and yet we keep the hospitals afloat", denounces De Palma. "Over 70% of professionals are forced to get into debt to make ends meet." 130,000 nurses are attacked every year, and in the first 3 months of 2025 there has been a 30% increase. "Not only are we not protected," continues De Palma, "we are left alone, under fire, in the silence of the institutions." And the staff shortage, calculated on the basis of EU standards on OECD data at at least 175,000 units, is "a defeat." A survey of 1,500 nurses between November and March 2025 revealed that 90% feel undervalued, 88 do not believe in an improvement, and 75 would advise young people against the profession. 60% are considering moving abroad, compared to 70% who live with serious sacrifices or debts. "We are at the point of no return. Either we save the nursing profession now, or public health will collapse. And with it, Italy, which takes care of its citizens," concludes De Palma.