Background: Much effort has been made to explore how patients with advanced chronic illness and their families experience care when they attend the Emergency Department, and many studies have investigated how healthcare professionals perceive Palliative Care provision in the Emergency Department. Various models exist, but nonetheless incorporating palliative care into the Emergency Department remains challenging. Considering both healthcare professionals’ and users’ perspective on problems encountered in delivering and receiving appropriate palliative care within this context may provide important insight into meaningful targets for improvements in quality of care. Accordingly, this study aims at exploring issues in delivering palliative care in the Emergency Department from the perspective of both providers and users, as part of a larger project on the development and implementation of a quality improvement program in Italian Emergency Departments. Methods: A qualitative study involving focus group interviews with Emergency Department professionals and semi-structured interviews with patients with palliative care needs in the Emergency Department and their relatives was conducted. Both datasets were analyzed using Thematic Analysis. Results: Twenty-one healthcare professionals, 6 patients and 5 relatives participated in this study. Five themes were identified: 1) shared priorities in Emergency Department among healthcare professionals and patients, 2) the information provided by healthcare professionals and that desired by relatives, 3) perception of environment and time, 4) limitations and barriers to the continuity of care, and 5) the contrasting interpretations of giving and receiving palliative care. Conclusions: This study provides insights into targets for changes in Italian Emergency Departments. Room for improvement relates to training for healthcare professionals on palliative care, the development of a shared care pathway for patients with palliative care needs, and the optimization of Emergency Department environment. These targets will be the basis for the development of a quality improvement program in Italian Emergency Departments.

Background: The interest for qualitative research methodology has expanded beyond theoretical academic research on medical education, gathering interest from all healthcare professionals. Qualitative research has potentials in exploring the social, emotional, psychological aspects of care and in broadening professionals’ scientific competencies. Nonetheless, qualitative research has still not been embraced within formal and academic curricula for future professionals, preventing newer generations from appreciating the value of its epistemological and methodological aspects and from using it in the development and implementation of clinical research. The purpose of this study was to comprehend the attitudes of health professionals learning and conducting qualitative studies within a practical training program developed in their workplace.Methods: The present work consisted of a focused ethnography, including 14 professionals during their one-year attendance training on qualitative research methodology. Strategies used for collecting data included participant observations, field notes, semi-structured interviews, and a focus group. All the data were analyzed consistently with ethnographic indications.Results: Analyses allowed us to evidence the educational, motivational, group-related and organizational factors influencing the attitudes and skill acquisition of healthcare professionals learning and conducting qualitative research within a practical training program developed in their workplace. Prior educational background was perceived as a sort of barrier. Nonetheless, the training boosted a change in attitude both in terms of appreciation of the research approach and trainees’ emotional involvement with research participants. Doing a qualitative study in a multidisciplinary team raised in-group dynamics that hindered bringing the studies to conclusion. Trainees repeatedly lamented the difficulty in managing time to devote to research-related activities and questioned the feasibility of adopting this methodology for conducting research in their workplace.Conclusions: Continual education training on the methodological aspects and practical implications of qualitative research may foster a renewed attitude towards one’s professional education, while making inter-professional relationship issues emerge. Nonetheless, broadening the perspectives of professionals on their clinical practice by means of learning qualitative methodology may have an evident quality improvement return. Strategies for future qualitative research methodology hands-on training addressed to health professionals in continuing education are proposed.

Background: Health information concerns both individuals’ engagement and the way services and professionals provide information to facilitate consumers’ health decision making. Citizens’ and patients’ participation in the management of their own health is related to the availability of tools making health information accessible, thus promoting empowerment and making care more inclusive and fairer. A novel instrument was developed (Evaluation Tool of Health Information for Consumers—ETHIC) for assessing the formal quality of health information materials written in Italian language. This study reports ETHIC’s content and face validity. Methods: A convenience sample of 11 experts and 5 potential users was involved. The former were requested to evaluate relevance and exhaustiveness, the latter both readability and understandability of ETHIC. The Content Validity Index (CVI) was calculated for ETHIC’s sections and items; experts and potential users’ feedback were analyzed by the authors. Results: All sections and most items were evaluated as relevant. A new item was introduced. Potential users provided the researchers with comments that partly confirmed ETHIC’s clarity and understandability. Conclusions: Our findings strongly support the relevance of ETHIC’s sections and items. An updated version of the instrument matching exhaustivity, readability, and understandability criteria was obtained, which will be assessed for further steps of the validation process.

Over the last few decades, survival among patients with lung cancer (LC) has progressively improved due to major advances in treatment strategies, particularly the introduction of immunotherapy and targeted therapies, as well as the increased detection of early-stage disease resulting from the widespread use of chest computed tomography (CT). Although the reduction in mortality, frequently achieved through effective control of the primary disease, represents a major therapeutic success, it also raises new clinical challenges, including the long-term management of cancer remission or disease stability and the competing risk of adverse outcomes related to comorbidities and treatment-related toxicities. Among these, cardiovascular (CV) complications have emerged as particularly relevant because of their frequency and prognostic impact. Within the framework of a holistic long-term management approach, increasing attention should be directed toward non-pharmacological interventions targeting lifestyle factors, particularly nutrition and physical exercise, whose role remains underestimated. These interventions may modulate chronic inflammation and immune responses, which are key drivers influencing both the effectiveness of novel anticancer therapies and the progression of cardiovascular complications. Patients with LC frequently present malnutrition and unfavorable lifestyle patterns associated with substantial physical and psychological stress, factors that may negatively affect treatment outcomes and overall prognosis. This narrative review examines the emerging role of targeted nutritional strategies and structured physical exercise as integral components of supportive care in LC, with a specific focus on their impact on cardiac metabolism, CV risk, and response to anticancer therapies, including immunotherapy.