Greetings from Italy!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Hi everyone, I'm a newcomer to this great site.

After several weeks I finally decided to register and I just can't wait to look at some of the forums.

I'm an italian 26 y.o. RN with 3 years post-registration experience, and in the next few days I will start to work into my city's brand-new ER

It's nice to be part of this worldwide nurses community! ;)

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good luck. i'm new here too. not a new nurse. i really like this site too. :welcome:

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Specializes in Psych, Derm,Eye,Ortho,Prison,Surg,Med,.

Greetings Nick!

Welcome to the Nurses' Forum.

Rock RN, retired

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Nice to meet you. Welcome to Allnurses!

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Hi,

I am living in Chicago and am currently trying to become an RN. Where in Italy are you? Can you tell me about nursing in Italy? What are the starting salaries? How do you like the work? What speciality are you in? Any information you can give me regarding nursing in Italy would be great. I am also curious to know what is involved for a RN from the States to become a nurse in Italy.

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Specializes in Tele Step Down, Oncology, ICU, Med/Surg.

Ciao:

Boun venutto Qui! I'm an allnurses.com adict. I come here to waste time when I should be studing.

I'm a first generation Italian American living in the San Francisco, Bay Area. Both my parents passed away before their time, so I'm an American Italian orphan and I miss speaking Italian sooo much. My Dad has only been gone one year and I already am starting to forget words...Come si dice (insert word I'm fumbling for here).

Have my Nonna/Zia still living in Lucca, and will be visiting all my Italian family as soon as I pass the NCLEX....2 1/2 years from now as I will be entering nursing school this Fall. Figure my three kids will be old enough by then to make the expense of flying over worth the educational/memory value. My youngest is three, so still too young.

My cousin, Maria Enrica, is an EMT/Ambulance/Emergency provider in Lucca, and My Zia Osaia is a retired Midwife/Nurse (come si dice....see what I mean). They have very involved careers in Italy with a broader range than I see here in the U.S. Do you pass some version of the NCLEX to become a registered RN? Why did you choose ER?

Look forward to talking with you soon,

Bertolozzi

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Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

bonjourno ?!?!

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Specializes in Psych, Derm,Eye,Ortho,Prison,Surg,Med,.

Hi Nicknurse:

We haven't heard from you since 3-10-07. A number of people have responded to your message.

Tell us something about where you live in Italy. Many of us here in US have relatives living in Italy, especailly those who chose to stay in their native country.

Rock, RN, BS, MS

:welcome: :balloons: :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Hi everyone!

First of all, I would like to apologise for my delay in answering all your kind welcome messages, but these last 20 days were literally crazy! My city's brand-new hospital was finally opened and all the wards had to be transferred to the new location, including ER. What a mess!

Well, thank you again for all your kind messages.

I'll try answer to you all ;)

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

@stellina1122:

Hi my future colleague!

I live in a small town in the northwest of Italy, near Switzerland's border.

Nursing situation in Italy is a bit complicated and complex, by some points of view.

I'll try to give you several "historical" explanations, first ;)

In Italy, the nursing profession has stepped into university only since 1992. Present days, we have only a single way to become a nurse, a three-years degree which roughly could be considered equal to the Bachelor in Sciences of Nursing.

Italian nurses can finally obtain their Master in Sciences of Nursing only since 2004.

After they graduate, nurses may carry on studying by attending a "First Level master" (or other lifelong education initiatives) or they can enroll for the Master's Degree.

There's a pun here, because here in Italy the word "Master" stands for a sort of "specialty course" (such as an ER course, or an OR course).

We have no formally recognized Certifications such as CRNA or CCRN.

The funny thing is that a Nurse who has earned his "1st level master" (I mean, the specialty course) is not eligible for higher salary or reserved positions inside the hospital's organization. Basically you have to pay your specialty course on your own, and you could be obliged to sacrifice your permissions/holydays/paid leaves in order to attend it.

In order to practice their profession, nurses are obliged to register.

Italian Nurses are represented on a national basis by the Federation of the Ipasvi Colleges (Federazione dei Collegi Ipasvi).

In Italy, Nurses can carry out their activities in public or private structures, in the community and homes, as employees or as independent workers; they can contribute to the training of support staff and participate in lifelong training programmes and they can also conduct research.

Italian Nurses own a Deontological Code, which was approved in 1999. It is currently in force, and it is subdivided into seven articles.

You can have a look at it by clicking on the following link: http://www.ipasvi.it/content/english/Codice%20deontologico%20-%20Nota%20StoricaING.htm

What about nursing in Italy?

Well, first and foremost I want to state clearly that I'm completely happy in my profession and that I am proud to be a Nurse.

I have to admit that the situation here is not so good.

We have actually developed, through these last years, a very good set of laws about nursing profession. The only problem is to apply them in the reality.

We have also severe nursing shortage here, and this means that it is hard to find a workplace which is not heavily understaffed. We have started to rely on immigrant nurses from newly accepted European Countries, but there are obviously heavy problems about languages and different nursing backgrounds.

I can tell you that Italy is one of the european countries with the worst nurses/physician ratio. If I remember well, we have something like 8 physicians (or more) for each nurse. :uhoh3:

I'm sorry to say that here the nursing profession is not well considered and respected as it deserves. As a matter of fact, I can tell you that only since 1999, the nursing profession is considered an Healthcare Profession on its own, and it is no longer regarded as an auxiliary healthcare profession.

Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, the problem is basically a cultural background problem. People here seems to care only about the CURE concept. The CARE concept is seen mainly as a nice addition, but absolutely not necessary.

Nurses are not considered central to the delivery of care.

And, sadly, nursing was not in the past (and basically still it is not) considered as a good career choice.

The salaries reflect this cultural problem.

A new grad here earns a minimum of €1200, that is more or less (often less) the salary of a specialized employee. (With all due respect for the employees! ;)).

Summarize the difficult Nursing School path, the salary that is absolutely not competitive (compared to all the responsabilities we have) and add the fact that your profession is barely recognized by the people (when it is not considered an humble profession at all)...

I bet you will guess easily why we have 8 physicians for each single nurse here.

About what is involved for an US Nurse to work in Italy...

Well, as I said previously, we have started to rely on immigrant nurses, mainly from EU countries / newly accepted EU countries.

I guess the path is the same for an american colleague who wish to work in Italy.

If you are already a RN in the USA, you have to send all your "papers" to the Italian Ministry of Healthcare... and wait... but I warn you since now against Italian bureaucracy... ;)

Basically, here in Italy we have a National Health System which provides and assures a standard level of care on national basis. You are not obliged to have your own healthcare insurance in order to have access to all levels of medical care.

And finally, dear future colleague, the more personal answers: :lol2:

First of all I obviously enjoy very much to be a nurse and I can't imagine to be anything else. I love the feelings when I return home knowing that I made a difference in people's lives.

After three years (I graduated in Oct, 2003) in Med/Rehab/Surg wards I finally got my RN position in my city's brand-new hospital Emergency Room.

I've always been interested in emergency medicine, and even if I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed now (so many new things to learn, and so many thing I realized I just don't know! :trout:), I hope to succeed in making emergency medicine my career field! ;)

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

Welcome to All Nurses; we're glad you're here!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

@Bertolozzi

Hello! Or, better, Ciao!

Well, my grandparents were from Tuscany, too :lol2: (that is the part of Italy where city of Lucca is)!

E' un piacere poter parlare in italiano con te su questo bel forum!

It is a pleasure to be able to speak in italian with you on this nice forum!

I wish you all the best in your nursing school!

Well, we can say that I'm an EMT, too (even if we have not recognized an official EMT job description here in Italy).

You said your aunt/grandmother had an involved career in healthcare here, with a broader range than in the US... this sounds particularly interesting to me, since -on the contrary- here we commonly think that RNs in USA have a broader range than us here in Italy...

Yes, in order to be licensed, here we have to pass the so-called State Board Exam (Esame di Stato), which could be considered equal to the NCLEX.

Spero di poter frequentare molto spesso questo forum; ci risentiamo presto!

I'm looking forward to talk with you soon ;)

NicK

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