In their daily teaching in hospitals, teachers interact within a complex interpersonal and professional network. The present study investigated what kind of professional relationships hospital teachers have with other staff in their daily work and which factors they perceive as being either stressful or gratifying in their professional activities. An online questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice items and open-ended responses was developed and distributed to all school-in-hospital teachers in Italy. A representative sample of 602 teachers responded. Quantitative findings were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The open-ended responses were analyzed by combining qualitative content analysis with statistical textual analysis using T-LAB software. The results confirm the complexity of the setting in which hospital teachers operate, one that is characterized by the wide variety of professional and non-professional roles the teachers perform. Four clusters were defined covering both the stress dimensions (Illness, Work Fragmentation, Organization, and Interpersonal Relationships) and the gratifying aspects (Work Recognition, Normalization, Human Contact, and Interpersonal Relationships). The implications of these findings for the management of hospital schools are discussed.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictive measures taken against the spread of the contagion can be considered as traumatic events having a major impact on mental health. Dreams after undergoing traumatic experiences could "replay" traumatic scenes or have a para-therapeutic role that facilitates connections between a traumatic event and associated emotions. However, the studies carried out thus far in the field of sleep and dreams during the COVID-19 pandemic have mostly focused on sleep disorders, emotional tones, and contents of dreams. The aim of the present study was to explore, from a qualitative-quantitative perspective, the contents of dreams and the functions of dreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 1,095 subjects who decide to recount their dreams, during the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak, was involved. A part of the Mannheim Dream questionnaire was also examined, considering both dream recall and the attitudes toward the dreams-both meaningful and transformative-as indicators of the dreaming process. A cluster analysis was performed on dream narratives through the T-Lab software. In all, 4 thematic clusters emerged: Escape From the Threat; The Work of Mourning, Unrecalled Dreams; COVID-19: As Manifest Content. The factorial mapping organized 3 vectors of meaning, representative of the function of dreaming: Remembering, Repeating, and Working Through; From

Homebound Education in Italy is based on one-to-one teaching conducted by teachers who visit the sick student at home. This modality does not include interactions between homebound students and classmates, thus inhibiting the educational aspect of peer relationships. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent dispositions of the Ministry of Education regarding remote education and integrated digital didactic (DID), new opportunities became available for homebound students. In this research, we applied and tested in the context of homebound education a model of hybrid inclusive classroom developed in a previous project ((TRIS), addressing homebound students that could not permanently attend school and followed lessons remotely. The present study involved two homebound students affected by chronic and acute diseases. During the 2020/21 school year, the model was proposed to the two school councils (22 teachers in all) and the trial monitored; at the end of the school year, semi-structured interviews were conducted with teachers and transcriptions analyzed using a deductive approach based on the model. Results confirm some findings of the TRIS project, while new aspects emerged linked to the specific context. Overall, the implemented hybrid classroom seems to have positively affected both the learnings and students’ inclusion.

The abrupt interruption of face-to-face educational activities imposed by the Italian government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic required a rapid switch to distance learning to guarantee continuity in education. The same applied to the School-in-Hospital (SiHo) services. This paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in this specific context; we investigated the organizational changes and strategies adopted by the SiHo services and individual teachers to meet the challenges posed by this change in the educational paradigm. Moreover, the paper outlines teachers’ visions about possible educational scenarios for the next academic year (2020–2021). Using qualitative methodology, the study took the form of a group interview involving 12 teachers working across 8 children’s hospitals in Italy. The thematic analysis revealed a number of themes for further investigation. In terms of the actual situation during the pandemic, we identified critical issues and facilitating factors that occurred in distance learning with hospitalized students. One significant theme that emerged from the interviewees’ narratives involved their general attitudes towards distance learning and their individual approaches to the pandemic. The relationship of hospitalized students to mainstream schools also proved to be an important theme, not only regarding the recent past but also the future. Finally, teachers hypothesized future distance learning scenarios for the new school year, highlighting the challenges to be faced from several viewpoints (methodological, organizational, technological, etc.).

Before pandemic, online learning was not widespread in the Italian educational context with preschoolers. This study investigates how a sample of 143 Italian kindergarten teachers describe their experiences and perception in conducting online learning during Covid-19 lockdown. Findings revealed that collaboration among teachers seems to be one of the most important elements to guarantee quality online learning, as well as the emotional and relational dimensions that involve kindergarten teachers and children with their families as “mediator”, especially with children with Special Educational Needs (SEN). Although this study was conducted in an emergency period, these findings may have important implications in online learning with preschoolers also during the post pandemic period.

No abstract

No abstract

Introduction: Narcolepsy type 1 (NT1) is a chronic and rare sleep disorder typically arising during adolescence and young adulthood. The main symptoms are excessive daytime sleepiness and cataplexy, a prototypical fall down elicited by huge emotions. Social relationships, school, work, and general health perception are frequently impaired in patients, who often show lower quality-of-life scores. We report which management strategies a young patient (DMG) adopted to cope with NT1 during his growth, avoiding exhibiting serious impairments to his global functioning. Methods: A clinical psychologist explores the history of the patient's disease and the self-acquired strategies used to cope with the symptoms. The patient's global adaptation to the disease, stress-related managing skills, and overall well-being are assessed by standardized scales [Illness Behavior Questionnaire (IBQ); Coping Orientations to Problems Experienced (COPE); and Psychological General Well-Being Index (PGWBI)]. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the patient's narration of his illness according to the procedure of the Grounded Theory. The MAXQDA software program was used to code the verbatim transcript. Results: From the qualitative analysis of the interview, three thematic cores emerged: 1) the disease history; 2) the patient's friendship with AD, a friend of his age diagnosed with NT1 since childhood; 3) the strategies used to deal with his symptoms before the diagnosis of NT1 and the related treatment. From the psychometric tests, the patient presents good coping strategies in dealing with stressful problems and events based mainly on acceptance and positive reinterpretation of the stressful situation. Conclusion: This case shows that comparing peers of the same age and suffering from the same illness improve the patient's self-management ability to cope and live well with NT1.