Aims: Aging of registered nurses workforce is already a worrying issue in many countries and therefore attempts to estimate its alarming dimension are on course. Some worrying signals are already evident in Italy but, to date, no data are available on the size and possible evolution of the problem.
Methods: This study aims to describe the trend of the aging of nurses workforce in three hospitals of Turin in the next 25 years and to explore retention strategies.
Results: The percentage of nurses > 45 years ranges from 19 to 21% but it is bound to steadily increase, ranging from 59 to 71%.
Conclusions: The creation of an healthy work place, tailored to the needs of ageing of the workforce and the implementation of retention strategies and incentives centered on this age-group will be one of the immediate future challenges, to govern an highly predictable emergency.