Multiple strategies helping potential candidates to make the best career decision on the basis of valid information should be strengthened and offered during the secondary school, through nursing students, families, teachers and networks, and not just the media. In addition, efforts to improve the working conditions of nurses must be undertaken.

Current literature has paid increasing attention to the factors influencing career decisions; nevertheless, few studies have compared candidates that have chosen a nursing versus a non-nursing degree. A multicenter, cross-sectional study design was performed to explore whether or not certain individual variables and having inaccurate data about nursing as a profession influenced the choice of a non-nursing degree. Six non-nursing and three nursing degree programs offered by two public Italian universities were involved. A total of 507 students who had just enrolled in non-nursing degree programs and 202 in nursing degree programs were invited to complete a questionnaire comprising 12 closed items. Overall, from 40.0% to 57.1% of the variation in choosing a degree other than nursing was explained by variables such as age, and having inaccurate data on the nursing profession. For each year over 19 years of age, the likelihood that the student would decide to enroll in a nursing degree program increases. For each wrong answer reported on the questionnaire evaluating knowledge on nursing profession, there was a reduction of approximately six times in the likelihood that the student would enroll in a nursing degree program. Information regarding the nursing profession should be offered in early stages of life; in addition, offering accurate data on the profession is a key factor in evaluating the congruence of the career with the individual's personal motivations, aspirations, and talents.

Introduction: The article describes how in ASUGI nursing students are made aware, since their first year bachelor degree, about the importance of actively engaging the person in the health-care process and of measuring the level of engagement with validated instruments (with particular reference to the PHE-S®). Methods: During the clinical internship, with the help of the internship tutors, students can experiment and use this tool. At the end of the third year, they try to systematize what they have learnt in the practical traineeship by connecting their practical experience with theoretical concepts learnt and critically analysing their clinical experiences. Results and Discussion: This didactic experience has led to the preparation and defence of a good number of degree theses focused on the value of measuring and promoting the engagement of people along their healthcare

Introduction: This article affirms that measuring the Caregiver’s emotional experience and engagement, especially as the condition of the person assisted changes, is useful for assessing the sustainability of the care plan. Methods: With this pilot study, aimed at detecting the level of Caregiver engagement, by using the Caregiving Engagement Scale (CHE-S®), for people suffering from chronic and/or fragile pathologies, it was decided to verify the relationship between engagement levels and other variables such as: socio-demographic characteristics of the Caregiver; duration and frequency person; clinical characteristics of the assisted person. Results and Conclusions: In the future, the results of this research will allow to define new working practices to support those who take on the responsibility and burden of caring for a sick, fragile, disabled family member.

This article describes the fruitful collaboration between the Integrated Care Unit of the Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano-Isontina (ASUGI) and the EngageMinds HUB research Center of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in the area of patient Engagement. Since then, thanks to this partnership, many training activities have been carried out, allowing healthcare professionals belonging to ASUGI to get trained about patient Engagement measurement and promotion (with particular reference to the Patient Health Engagement Model developed by Graffigna et al., 2015) (the PHE-Model®) in various settings, territory continuity programmes, as well as in some local services. The assessment of the process carried out has allowed to identify and promote initiatives aimed at improving the implementation processes of the PHE-Model®.