[Migration, work flexibility and early retirement of nurses in Italy]

Several work organizational changes have been occurring in the health sector in the last years. Workforce is rapidly changing and particularly nurses. In Italy there is a growing shortage of nurses (5,4/1000 inhabitants versus 9,26 in EU25) due mainly to early retirement and insufficient turnover of nurses coming from educational programmes. Work flexibility and facilitation of migration flow of foreigner nurses have been introduced in Italy to face the problem. The present study is aimed at investigating the impact of such a change in the nursing sector in Italy and its possible impact on occupational safety and health. In view of this, the main institutional and category Sources were used. According to IPASVI estimates, the shortage of nurses in Italy is 99,000. Out of a total of 342,000 active professional nurses, 20,000 are foreign, mainly from European countries. Nurses are specially affected by accidents at work, mainly musculoskeletal disorders. The study shows a higher vulnerability of migrated nurses and nurses hired through cooperatives. Therefore urgent measures are needed to promote their integration and assess educational and training needs in the field of health and safety at work.