Nursing Assistant, the New Role Doesn’t Please Nursing Up
The nurses union Nursing Up protest against the institution of the Nursing Assistant, a new professional profile, provided for by a document transmitted by the Ministry of Health to the State-Regions Conference, for the purpose of acquiring the necessary Agreements. This is, explains the president Anthony DePalmaof “a big mess that “puts at risk the quality of care, of which nurses represent the foundation, with their skills and their high responsibilities”.
The figure of the Nursing Assistantalso defined ‘super Oss”, is a novelty in the Italian healthcare landscape, dictated by the chronic shortage of nurses. This figure is defined as an “operator in possession of the qualification of Social-Healthcare Worker (Oss) who, following further training, obtains the qualification of Nursing Assistant”.
“In April 2023 – remember From Palma – we were called to report with the technicians and experts of the Regions on this proposal defined as ‘birth of a new operator of health interest who collaborates with the nurse’, fully expressing our perplexities. Those doubts that have now transformed into a peremptory negative judgment”.
The danger, he specifies, is that “in a time of emergency linked to the increasingly serious shortage of nurses, politics, through the creation of this new figure, was once again failing in its duties to enhance the nursing profession, trying to get around the obstacle”.
The decree which provides for the figure of the Nursing Assistant goes hand in hand with a second decree regarding the Review of the profile of the social health worker, also establishing the training obligations. Both being examined by the Regions, aim to standardize the development and training of these professional figures at a national level”. These innovations, concludes the Nursing Up“can represent an advantage for the system” only if politics “creates the conditions for a more inclusive and qualifying employment of nurses and midwives, providing for a necessary review of organizational models”.
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