This issue of the ACTA supplement for Health Professionals is released to press while the healthcare professionals are providing their utmost commitment to tackle a historic health emergency that, originating in a region of China, is involving the regions of Northern Italy and gradually many other regions of Italy, Europe, and the whole world. Doctors, nurses, midwives, rehabilitators, health technicians, but also psychologists and social workers are collaborating side by side to provide due care to the patients and to slow the progress of Coronavirus CoVid 19 infection. Many researchers are engaged in the study of the characteristics of the virus, unknown to most until a few months ago, to identify possible specific therapies and to develop a vaccine useful for humans. The lack of scientific references and epidemiological certainties has determined a climate of collective panic and has severely tested the ability of political and health institutions to take adequate and shared measures. Coronavirus is the main topic of television and radio broadcasts, of the mass media in general, but also of the speeches of citizens of the concerned areas.
Our team is not far behind, in fact by writing this editorial we are commenting on what is happening and, among other things, we are considering that this unexpected event highlights the importance of some issues that this journal has been dealing with for some time.
One of them is the importance of scientific research in the specific professional areas of the healthcare. These professionals are used to considering scientific research as a prerogative of the medical profession and topics such as assistance to the person, the relationship with patients, communication with patients and family members, the importance of spirituality in medicine and many others hardly find space in prestigious scientific journals. The lack of in-depth analysis of these aspects is probably one of the reasons why the perceived quality of advanced healthcare systems is often lower than what the organizers of those systems would expect. For some time now, however, something has been changing and this magazine has been making a small contribution to this change. Healthcare professionals feel the need to apply the methods of scientific research to the deepening of those themes and the number of articles that come to the observation of this Editorial Board is increasing. Even the articles that are published in this issue represent original studies that help to highlight how research is a tool capable of allowing individual development at both personal and professional level. This also allows to change the professional environment in terms of qualitative improvement of performance and information management in a perspective increasingly based on the collection of data and evidence.
In this issue, contributions are proposed that address different topics: the validation instruments for the nursing profession (Tonarelli et al.; Strini et al.; Miraglia Ranieri et al.), studies regarding risks and potential for healthcare professionals in the relationship with their patients (d’Ettorre et al.; Marletta et al.; Provenzano et al.; Propelita et al.) and studies that propose to the public of professionals innovative integrated strategies to be used in the treatment of the patient (Artioli et al.).
The topic of this latest article concerns another theme often addressed in this journal, the inter-professionalism in caring practice. The usefulness of studies regarding this issue is highlighted by what is happening in these days. Having to face a critical, unexpected, completely new situation requires the commitment and collaboration of professionals from multiple disciplines. The implementation of different skills, all necessary, of different thought systems, of different professional skills is essential to face the different facets of a global health crisis. Skills, when necessary, have no hierarchies and cannot remain confined to individual professional areas. The crisis highlights how interdisciplinarity and multi-professionalism are an integral part of the health system and the article that we publish in this issue offers an example.
The Editorial Board in this issue intended to enhance the heterogeneity of the research groups by highlighting the contributions from educational realities (Post graduate Specializations, University), able to exemplify how the learning of the research methodology becomes, in the healthcare professional, a skill able to strengthen and expand the quality of the profession itself.
The centrality of the research and the importance of inter-professionalism also emerge from the contribution presented here on the assessment of the educational needs for Myanmar health professionals who will receive training in primary care at the University of Parma (Mosca et al.). This pilot study represents the first step of a broader analysis and an example of the concreteness of research, which is already an action, aimed at implementing a training course tailored to the educational needs that can represent the excellence for the learner.
When this issue comes out, health professionals are demonstrating the significance of their professional role, how and why their contribution is indispensable to the system. The students of the postgraduate training specializations who often publish contributions in this magazine are committed at the forefront of activities to treat people affected by CoVid 19 and to contain the epidemic. The Editorial Board of this journal feels virtually at their side and is convinced that thanks to their commitment, the next issue will come out in a serene atmosphere of returning to “normal”.