Psychologist in Italian hospital settings: An exploratory analysis of hospital physicians' representations and demands of psychological intervention

Abstract

modelos integrados de asistencia basados en el enfoque bio-psico-social, en los servicios de salud, como los hospitales, existe todavía mucha resistencia para su implementación. Se presenta un estudio exploratorio cualitativo dirigido a comprender las representaciones y las demandas de los médicos hospitalarios con respecto a la intervención psicológica en los contextos hospitalarios italianos. Conforme a este objetivo se desarrolló un guión de entrevista semi-estructurada y se entrevistaron 15 médicos italianos divididos por género, edad y especialidad médica. Fueron investigados las representaciones de la enfermedad, el acercamiento a los pacientes y los modelos de intervención, la experiencia de colaboración con psicólogos, las representaciones de dónde, cuándo y cómo los psicólogos podrían ser útiles en el contexto hos pitalario, las visiones generales del hospital y de su futuro, los puntos de fuerza y de debilidad de su trabajo, las estrategias utilizadas para superar las dificultades diarias y las estrategias propuestas pa ra mejorar el sistema hospitalario. El análisis de contenido de las entrevistas ha revelado que la intervención psicológica está representada predominantemente como una intervención a nivel individual dirigida a contener el distrés emocional en relación con la enfermedad. Además se ha evidenciado la falta de consideración de la competencia psicológica como útil para promocionar el funcionamiento organizativo de los servicios hospitalarios. Estos resultados pueden apoyar la investigación futura en esta área y son utilizados para discutir las oportunidades de un diálogo constructivo entre ciencias médica y psicológica en los contextos hospitalarios.Palabras clave: Competencia psicológica; Intervención psicológica; Contextos hospitalarios; Mé-dicos hospitalarios; Representaciones; Demandas. abstractDuring the years, the World Health Organization has been emphasising the importance of promoting integrated models of care consistent with a bio-psycho-social approach to health-illness. Nonetheless, healthcare services still show much resistance to the implementation of such models and the use of multidisciplinary teams. As a consequence, and despite the efforts made over the years by psychologists, the role and specificity of psychological competence in healthcare settings InterdIscIplInarIa, 2017, 34, 1, 5-23 continues to remain unclear. This is particularly true as regards hospital settings. Based on these considerations, this article presents an exploratory qualitative study aimed at understanding hospital physicians' representations of, and demands for, psychological intervention in Italian hospital settings. The main argument on which the study was based is that the integration of psychological competence into hospital settings very much depends on other professionals' representation of the psychological profession, as well as on the emotional symbolization of their work context and professional practice. A key role is played by physicians, whose representations of the psychological i...

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