Health under the telephone wire. Telephonic interaction between oncological patients and health workers | [Quando la salute è appesa a un filo. L'Interazione telefonica fra paziente oncologico e operatore sanitario]

The psycho-oncological literature highlighted the importance of temporal continuity and professional competence when it comes to the relationship between patients affected by cancer and health workers who attend to them. This research has analyzed, from a cultural and community psychology perspective as well as a psycho-semiotic perspective, some telephonic interactions that have taken place on a telephone counselling service, which is geared to patients undergoing home-based chemotherapeu-tic treatments. To this end we did an ethno-psychological observation (Freda, 2011; Angrosino, 2007) of the hospital department and have carried out 54 telephonic consultations subsequently analysed by means of the dia-textual analysis (Mininni, 2003). The analysis focus on the delegitimation felt by the health workers when it comes to taking charge of the patients; these feelings are linked to the ambivalence showed by the physicians with regard to the delegation of the patients themselves. By setting up a collaboration between the health workers who deal with the patients and the health personnel who set the therapeutic protocol it is possible to build up more professional responsibility as well as efficacy and efficiency for the whole institution while re-defining the quality of the service this provides.