[The perceived quality of routine daily communication in dialogues between health care workers]

In our day-to-day professional experience as doctors and chemists, we have often noted the poor quality of communication between us and other healthcare workers. We have observed how this in turn can adversely affect communication with the patient, which not only results in poor service to patients themselves, but also impairs the quality of our own work. Moreover, we are convinced that certain such behaviours are ubiquitous. We have therefore sought to evaluate this aspect of our professional life, using literature available on-line. The results reveal the existence of a large number of publications dedicated to relationships between different professions, and representing every possible position: from those frankly critical of other healthcare workers, to those seeking simply to understand these phenomena, to those planning strategies to overcome long-lasting animosities. Even the Italian Health Ministry, in its treatment of themes related to clinical risk, has devoted considerable attention to the quality of communication between healthcare workers. The conclusion we have reached is that there are two areas which are crucial to the improvement of inter-professional relations, namely: sufficient training in these matters in University courses, and a shift in conflicting ethical positions, which often reflect individual professional experience.