Full fourth phase of the pandemic and hospitals, but above all the territory at risk: in a month the infected health workers increase by 210% (and of these 82% are nurses) and by almost 286% the infected people. In all 135 thousand nurses infected by the beginning of the pandemic.
And the shortage of health professionals worsens with infections and assistance risks being seriously compromised.
The largest workforce in inpatient and home care facilities are nurses. Because they are next to the patients 24 hours a day and because they are the most numerous and best trained both from an organizational and clinical point of view to assist people.
The numbers of infections among health professionals
But the ‘holiday month’ 2021 and the premises of 2022 in this sense do not help: the health workers infected were, according to the Higher Institute of Health, 4,142 on 2 December 2021 and jumped to 12,870, +8,728 (+ 210% ) in 30 days, on January 2, tripling the infections. Of these, around 7,160 are nurses.
Of course, the vaccine effect, including the booster dose, is felt: in June 2020, with the first phase of the pandemic waning, but without vaccines, the ratio of infected health workers to infected population was almost 13%, while already with the first doses of vaccine and without variants, which like the omicron multiply the infections, in December 2020 it drops to an average value of about 3%, also linked to the general containment measures for the holidays that have led to a collapse in the contagions of the population, to pass at the beginning of December 2021, including omicron, to around 1.6% and again, despite everything, at the beginning of 2022, even with cases increasing exponentially, to around 1.3 percent. This is thanks to the almost total diffusion of the booster dose among the operators in contact with the patients, with cases of lesser severity for them and a stop of deaths.
FNOPI’s comment
It is necessary. it is clear, – comments the National Federation of Orders of Nursing Professions (FNOPI) – that the first thing to do is to make sure that everyone is vaccinated, also because the evidence shows that the most serious cases in intensive care are almost all unvaccinated . But that’s not enough. Everyone must understand that the security measures that slow down the spread of the virus must be maintained “.
“This is true for everyone – adds FNOPI – but for the institutions that plan assistance, at this moment of vital importance, we reiterate a simple recipe to leave no one alone. Recipe that apparently, however, does not want to be heard and understood. Who knows for what reasons, given the crucial role of nurses in the pandemic for all to see. After having defined us as heroes, without understanding that this is our everyday work, after having applauded and rewarded us with beautiful words, with a few steps it would be time to move on to facts, to make assistance stronger, safer and more quality ” .
“There are three steps in the short, medium and long term – explains FNOPI – to give strength to assistance: eliminate the snares and snares of a bureaucracy barricaded behind the wall the incompatibility that should be eliminated to address the very serious shortage of professionals, which today does not allow for at least 600,000 hours a week more nursing assistance to be made available to assistance, vital for the territory, Covid patients, but above all for non-Covid people, who found themselves alone in the pandemic “.
“The second and third steps are for the medium and long term – continues the Federation – and concern the necessary training of more operators, especially specialized, providing training with clinical outcomes determined by the needs of the people, to guarantee the quality of assistance : family and community nurses, school nurses, nurses for the non self-sufficient, for palliative care, for elderly care, for the chronic who need it for their everyday life and so on. They need to be gradually increased the number of vacancies in universities for nurses (the shortage of personnel now recognized by research centers and institutions, ranges from 80 thousand to over 101 thousand units) and that to do so it is also foreseen to increase the number of nursing teachers able to guarantee the right quality training. These are things that we had asked to include in the 2022 Budget Law, which would not have created difficulties for the system, but no one wanted to hear, except the majority and opposition senators, that the more than 456 thousand nurses enrolled in the registers (about 60% of the staff health care of the NHS) thank you for having presented the amendments, which then fell into thin air “.
“Finally – adds FNOPI – a recognition in deeds and not in words for those who have never left anyone alone and still today, as always, risk their health to put that of people in the foreground: the specific nursing allowance, already financed in the 2021 Budget Law and therefore without the need for further charges, which has been linked to a contract whose final application is certainly not imminent. This is also why we supported an amendment that would have made it possible to assign the indemnity, already received by the healthcare management at the beginning of 2021, with which those who have been working for two years without stopping could have, at least temporarily and leaving the definitive regulation to the contract. as required by law, to have a minimum tangible recognition “.
“All this – concludes the Federation of Nurses – without any invasion of the field. nor by taking anything away from other professions. ‘If working together we are powerful enough to destabilize our planet, surely by working together we are powerful enough to save it’, David Attenborough, the British naturalist, said speaking at COP26, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change which was held in Glasgow. The same spirit must characterize the new assistance: we must all work together, without hierarchies and divisions, for the good of citizens and patients. Those who have to plan should keep this in mind, otherwise their health will be the first to pay the price. And they will have to be held accountable ”.