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The educational needs in a large hospital in the Venice region were analysed in order to plan continuing education programs for 2005-2006. The reference model was the analysis of the educational waiting lists in both operative and managerial professions. Two identical questionnaires were used: the first was distributed to all the professional staff of the hospital with university qualifications and asked them to give their opinion regarding educational priorities. The second was given to staff with managerial roles, asking them to indicate the educational priorities for the staff under their direction. Analysis of the data collected focused on : the priority given to the various areas and topics of education; differences of opinion identified between the various working environments between professional groups and between staff/managers; influence of social and personal factors on the opinions expressed. The fact that the fields of interest indicated varied according to the role and working activities of staff involved, indicate the need to offer educational procedures tailored to the requirements of each group.

Unlabelled: In the intensive care unit (ICU) of Mestre hospital (Italy) a research was carried out to analyse the possibility to improve nurses' lip-reading skills., Methods: A specialized speech therapist organized a 20 hour training course for 34 health workers in ICU., Results: The participants had a lip-reading test at the beginning and at the end of the course and six months later. The final test revealed that participants could recognize a greater number of typical words in ICU in comparison to the initial test. Yet, after 6 months the skill decreased to the level shown at the beginning of the course. On the other hand, the trend shows that some participants' skill did not decrease. Neither the starting level nor intermediate stage are conditioned by sex, age, profession, and experience. In order to measure clinic efficacy, the participants had another test to understand if improved lip-reading skill could influence the following variables: word comprehension, nurse attitude to communication toward non-speaking people, patient emotional status and nurse emotional status. The training course seems to have had good effects on nurses' attitudes towards their patients and on their communication. Yet, study results do not show if increased lip-reading skills have real positive effects on ICU communication and whether this method is better than usual communication methods (e.g. mimic or alphabetic board).

Foot reflexology is both a diagnostic technique and therapy. It is an alternative therapy which is considered useful in pain management. Its effectiveness as a therapy has been studied at the Mestre hospital where a clinical study has been undertaken to determine the effectiveness of reflexology in the reduction of pain. A group of 40 persons suffering almost exclusively from a lumbar-sacral disc hernia received three treatments of reflexology massage for a week. The results found that 25 persons (62.5%) reported a reduction in pain, (rating at 0.75 on a scale of 0-4). These results however did not take into consideration the relationship between the effectiveness of foot reflexology and variables such as the persons physicality (Body Mass Index), or their psychological or social status.