[Collaboration between nurses and auxiliary staff: cognitive study on behaviour in a hospital environment]

The aim of this study was to analyze collaboration between nurses and auxiliary staff and it was implemented at the Santa Maria Nuova Hospital of Reggio Emilia. Although this topic is of great interest for the health structures, so far few studies dealing specifically with the interactions between these two categories have been published. The international scenario offers an extremely varied picture of the staff employed in such tasks : in fact, only Italy has a single national legislation which establishes that auxiliary staff are figures supporting the health professions in both a social and healty context. The study assessed the areas susceptible to improvement in terms of nursing-auxiliary staff collaboration , thus improving the quality of care, by promoting negotiation and confrontation between the two categories. In the literture the Jefferson Scale of Attitude Toward Physician Nurse Collaboration was used. Results identified that the priority areas of intervention regarded how the patient was received on hospital entry and during his stay and the safety of the patient throught hospitalization.