[E-learning and occupational medicine: results of one experience in Italy]. / E-learning e Medicina del Lavoro: risultati di una sperimentazione in Italia.

In Italy, there is at present a certain drive in order to make e-learning for Continuous Medical Education (CME) to take off, even though a normative framework for distance CME has not been completely defined yet. This paper describes the phases of course supply and usage of an e-learning system in the occupational medicine area in Italy. The system provides 10 courses for occupational physicians and one course for nurses, physiotherapists and occupational physiotherapists. During the span of time of 11 months, 2034 users have registered to the website and 1804 of them enrolled themselves into at least one course, for a total number of 5183 course enrolments, with a mean number of course enrolments per person of about 3, and 3710 courses were successfully concluded. This study points out on one hand a wide request for this kind of educational sessions, and on the other hand good results in terms of knowledge acquisition. Since the present experimental project was aimed at contributing to the definition of the normative framework for distance education for CME, it can be expected that e-learning for CME in Italy will get off the ground in the near future.

[Characteristics of personality in subjects who complain vexing on [corrected] workplace]. / Caratteristiche di personalità in un campione di soggetti che lamentano vessazioni sul posto di lavoro.

A few authors maintain the characteristics of personality might play an important role in the developing of mobbing, others did not find out any differences personality profiles in subject exposed to harassment compared to non-exposed ones. This study assesses, the psychological features of the sample of 276 subjects (114 males, 162females) admitted to a unit of Occupational Medicine, using Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory MMPI-2. Increase in score over 65 cut off compared to clinical scales was found out: Hypochondria, Depression, Hysteria, Paranoia and compared to content scale: Anxiety and Health concerns. No significant different resulted between males and females as regards clinical scales. To conclude our date confirm the hypothesis of a remarkable psychic discomfort in subjects complaining about harassment work. This discomfort, in compliance with the date of literature seem to be characterized by depression, anxiety and somatizations. However show a tendency to focus on working problems and a disposition to persecutories tendencies. All the above said characteristics might be due to negative working conditions or they reflect a psychological frailty which made the subjects more vulnerable to working stress.

[Usability study of an e-learning system for CME in occupational medicine: preparatory analysis and remedial actions]. / Studio di usabilità di un sistema di e-learning per l'educazione continua in Medicina del Lavoro: analisi preliminare e azioni correttive.

This paper describes the activities carried out in order to make an e-learning system for CME be a good tool in terms of usability. The following steps are described:--the needs analysis of the potential users;--the prototype of the e-learning system that has been set up;--the usability evaluation of the prototype by a sample often users before and after the implementation of the identified remedial actions. The obtained results support the hypothesis of an effective usage of the system in the near future. The follow-up of real users' usage, through the tracing facilities of the e-learning platform, will confirm or reject our hypothesis.