The best starting point, right on his doorstep

“I don’t even know if I should say this out loud,” says Dario and laughs, “but for me as an Italian, Chur was a random dot on the map before I moved.” We laugh as well, because it’s clear that this is not meant to be mean or derogatory, that’s just the way it was. After almost two and a half years, the 43-year-old is absolutely at home in the “random dot“, and he enjoys the advantages of the 40,000-resident city of Chur. He rides his bike to work at the cantonal hospital of Graubünden, and if he’s driving, he can reach Italy, Germany or other cantons in Switzerland within an hour. “That’s what I really like about my new home in Graubünden,” he says, as the alarm clock reads 5:45 a.m. – the morning shift has begun.

It takes intuition

A lot of what Dario does is routine – and a lot isn’t. Blood pressure checks, personal hygiene and dispensing medication are part of the daily tasks of nursing staff in hospitals. “Before I came here, I worked as a nurse specialist for eleven years in my home country. These types of tasks have been part of my everyday work for years,” Dario summarises his daily routine as a nurse at the KSGR for us. “We work with people, and everyone is different and wants to be treated differently. So something new awaits us every day. In addition to specialist knowledge, this also requires...” He stops as he can’t think of the word, then says: “It’s called Tatto in Italy.” We translate the Italian word used to describe an intuitive flair as ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’ and again he laughs: “‘Fingerspitzengefühl’, a word that literally means ‘fingertip feeling’, would only exist in German.”

Dario is responsible for a fixed number of patients. An “acute department”, however, requires flexibility as well as intuition. New, unplanned admissions must also be handled, in addition to possible complications amongst those who have already been admitted. The day of a nurse is busy – sometimes too much so. Dario says very honestly: “It’s no secret when I say we really need more people to choose nursing as a career. And yes, this job is not always easy, but it’s a good job.”

We can achieve the most by working together

At 3:45 p.m., as work is coming to a close, he tells us with a smile on his face how he came across this ‘random dot’: “I run ultramarathons and love to hike, and where better to do this than in Switzerland? That’s why I asked Google at the time which hospitals in Switzerland were looking for staff, only to find: there aren’t any... because I used the German word ‘Krankenhaus’, but the word for hospital here is actually ‘Spital’.” Again we have to smile like we’ve done so often today – Dario is right here, because yes, it is a challenging job, but people like Dario, with their personal manner and commitment, make sure that patients have an easier time when things are difficult. “We’re a cool team. We always manage to find a solution together.” And before he gets on his bike, he summarises with a wink and yet a serious tone: “I sold gelato for a time, which also heals a few wounds, but what I do today is about life. That makes me proud.”