Ricerc@Sapienza

Introduction: The evolution of nursing education has in fact led to an increase in knowledge and
skills that have made nurses real professionals. With the introduction of paragraph 566 of the 2015
Stability Law and Law 24 of 2017, greater attention has been paid to the use of the Guidelines and
how they, together with good practice, can reduce the use of defensive medicine.
Aim: The aim of this is to investigate the knowledge of nursing staff regarding the concepts of
advanced competence and professional responsibility in relation to their daily actions, considering
the new law framework.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on a sample of 60 responders
between June 2019 and September 2019, at the Policlinico Umberto I hospital in Rome.A survey
was conducted, aimed at nurses operating in the critical and surgical area setting, through the use of
an anonymous, non-validated questionnaire in whic the following are analyzed and tested: a)
personal data; b) analysis of work activity; c) knowledge analysis.
Results: 60 correctly completed questionnaires with a response rate of 63.8% were validated for the
study. 68.3% of the nurses were female and 31.6% male. The average age of the sample is 35.2
years. 16.7% of nurses always use company / ministerial guidelines in clinical practice; 36.7%
rarely use them; 41.7% use them enough, while 5% never use them. In relation to the knowledge of
current legislation, it emerges that 48.3% do not know paragraph 566 of the Stability Law, with
48.3% of the sample claiming to know the Gelli Law.
Conclusion: The results obtained show that the nursing staff need more training on the legal
aspects of the profession through dedicated training. Furthermore, the importance of professional
updating emerges as a means of not incurring defensive medicine.