My proposal would present a first preliminary research survey in a pediatric hospital ward, exploring the feasibility of a training proposal based on autobiographical writing, addressed to all the different professionals working with children in hospital.

The specificity of a pediatric ward adds complexity factors to medical and health practice. Children’s ill largely involves professional’s emotions, children also have particular emotional, relational, cognitive needs, that go beyond a health context: in Italy, but also in every European Country, pediatric ward are more and more a context lived by different professionals, like doctors, nurses, psychologists, teachers…

Sick children are always accompanied by their parents, creating the particular situation of a “double-patient” for the professionals operating in a pediatric ward.

So we can consider the pediatric ward as a context of complexity, that involves also pedagogical knowledge. The research trajectory would explore the possibility to use a pedagogical training instrument like the autobiographical writing for a training proposal in a pediatric ward.

The aim is to explore if this particular writing could help professionals to be aware of the complexity in their work context, living with authenticity their professional role, taking also care of their own life stories and their patients’ ones.

The principal research aim is to explore potentialities of autobiographical writing for personal and professional development of professionals involved in sick children’s care.

Writing is a special mode of human language: «it draws from the silence in our mind, so it gets us used to be silent and it teaches us to think in different ways. Writing makes us capable of confidentiality and deep thought»[1] (D. Demetrio 2007:24).

Autobiographical writing is also a particular training instrument: the act of writing produces a specific lucidity because it brings ourselves back to the experiences of our life, in a more aware way.

Writing of ourselves we start thinking and this reflection could produce awareness of our actions, in our life and in our profession. This awareness can bring a desire for change and redesign. Reflection allows to find meaning and sense in our individual experience.

[1] When I quote from Italian texts, the English translation is mine.

- Bateson, G., Mind and Nature, (1979), Dutton, New York. - Creswell, J.W., Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design, (1998), Sage, Thousand Oaks (CA). - Dewey, J., Esperienza ed educazione, (1993), tr. it. La Nuova Italia, Firenze. - Demetrio D., La scrittura clinica. Consulenza autobiografica e fragilità esistenziali, (2007) Raffaello Cortina, Milano. - Gergen, K.J., Gergen, M.M., From theory to Reflexivity in Research practice, in Steier, F., Research and Reflexivity, (1995), Sage, London. - Mortari L., Cultura della ricerca e pedagogia. Prospettive epistemologiche, (2007), Carocci, Roma. - Rorty, R., Consequences of Pragmatism, (1979), Blackwell, Oxford.