“The biggest problem? Refusing coffee, candy, invitations to lunch.” It happens when the nurse becomes ‘at home’. In Milan, in Lombardy that was the front line of Covid-19, in November 2020 a project started that transformed the first nurses into “friendly voices” who supported Covid patients who were treated at home, watching over them. Then in home vaccinators. Talking about this way of interpreting the profession outside the hospital context is Alice Pelanda, 33, on International Nursing Day, which is celebrated today 12 May. “We started with this project, wanted by our hospital, the Niguarda – he explains to Adnkronos Salute – precisely because the pandemic showed how hard it was in the area. We started a telephone monitoring for Covid positive patients. they convinced us we made him come to the clinic, so that an infectious disease specialist could visit him within 24 hours. People felt more protected, especially in hearing our voice every day or every two days. Covid is scary and isolates “. Then when the vaccination campaign started a new mission: to bring shield injections to the home for those who could not reach the hospital. Alice turns in overalls, gown and mask, a big red backpack on her shoulders, together with her colleagues. By now in the neighborhood around the hospital “they recognize us, we do not go unnoticed. It is nice when they welcome you already from the entrance gate with a smile. We started with the over 80s first and then, as it opened up to new categories , with the frail. That’s how we started going out on the territory. The best part of this experience “is the welcome – comments Alice – We entered people’s homes. And we must think of their load of fears and concern, for the vaccination itself and for the period of isolation to which many frail and elderly people have been forced to avoid the risk of contagion. There were those who had come from months of solitude. We were pleased to see how there was a reliance on us and the skills we bring. “The vaccinations at home go on.” We continue as long as needed – assures the nurse – And the hope is that tomorrow projects like these can range on any chronicity and frailty, for all pathologies and not just Covid. We would like to be able to continue to be a present and reference figure for tomorrow as well. “” We are all hospitals – he concludes – we come from different realities and the experience in the area has been somewhat new for almost everyone. We come from acute realities, I for example from the spinal unit. Many different specialties united under this new figure. We hope to be able to spend more on other patients, even when Covid is over. ”