Here comes the "super-nurse". Who will be able to visit, diagnose and even prescribe, albeit in the context of shared and "multi-professional" paths, that is managed together with doctors and other NHS figures. The novelty is contained in the document of the Ministry of Health which rewrites the role and responsibilities of nurses in view of a dedicated agreement by the State and the Regions (see yesterday's Doctornews). The draft, released Thursday evening to the Order of Doctors and Ipasvi (the Federation of Colleges of Nurses) for an opinion, already gives us food for thought from the preamble. Which recalls how "we are witnessing a significant evolution of the organizational-welfare components" of the health system, hence the need to "redefine the areas of care and assistance" on the basis of "interdisciplinary" methods, in a scenario that requires "the acquisition of advanced knowledge for each profession of the team and skills acted in a logic of integration, collaboration and cooperation". These principles are thus declined by the Ministry in the various areas of assistance: primary care (ie territory), emergency-urgency, surgical area, pediatric area, mental health and addiction area. And for each one, the proposal dictates a pattern of the new profiles that await the nurse.
In primary care, for example, the ministerial proposal opens up to nurses activities such as the use of standardized tools for the early identification of possible pathological states (opportunity and initiative medicine), monitoring the stability conditions of the chronic person, treating specific problems "independently" on the basis of clinical care pathways or shared protocols, prescribing "on the basis of shared procedures and criteria of devices and aids to support addiction/non-self-sufficiency", the use of ultrasound and "other simple diagnostic tools". the organization of vaccination campaigns, the implementation "in collaboration with school teachers of specific health education programs" and much more. In the Emergency area, on the other hand, the nurse will have to, among other things, «recognize the main metabolic, respiratory and cardiac alterations in acute patients», effectively and safely manage «non-critical cases», «managing therapy according to agreed protocols», perform wound sutures and treat minor cases (always on the basis of "shared protocols"), manage "from a multidisciplinary perspective the post-intensive follow-up services" also "in the long term after home discharge".
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