The aim of this research is to verify in our cultural context the validity of the findings reached by the research group based on Sweden, Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Blekinge Center of Competence, the Blekinge County Council research, Development and Innovation Unit.
The research team in Sweden has, in collaboration with Professor Robert Cloninger in St Louis, conducted a series of studies on the promotion of well-being and health at work, among various groups of professionals such as teachers, policemen, health care staff but. We are especially interested in the interaction between work environmental work factors defined as the psychological climate, co-acts with personality and whether there are any indicators of specific personality types being more vulnerable to the negative effects of stress. Developing the ability to bounce back or to cope successfully despite difficult circumstances (i.e., resilience; Rutter, 2008), is important. Research shows that individuals who have a high level of resilience growth positively and develop less burnout symptoms even after adverse work experiences (Guo, Luo, Lam, Cross, Plummer, & Zhang, 2018). In this sense, individual resilience is a strong protective factor that reduces the impact of workplace stress (Shatté, Perlman, Smith, & Lynch, 2017) and life stress in general (Ong, Bergeman, Bisconti, & Wallace, 2006). High levels of resilience among health care professionals have been associated with increased overall well-being, psychological health, improved work relationships, professional quality of life, and increased job-satisfaction (Delgado, Upton, Ranse, Furness, & Foster, 2017).
From the national panorama of the last years (Sveriges kommuner och landsting, 2011), it is evident that there is a need for further research and development of sus-tainable interventions that aim to promote resilience and prevent burnout among health care staff. We are led to believe that phenomena¿s like BS, absenteeism, turno-ver, are increasing problems in many other western countries as well.
Thus, it is a necessary societal need to provide tools to enhance personal resili-ence and to maintain this resilience through time among health care staff and other public workers (teachers, police force, etc.) in general. Improving resilience among health-care professional like nurses will have economical (e.g., less sick leave, turno-ver), performance (quality of care offered to the patients), and organizational (e.g., better psychological climate) effects for organizations in the public sector.
The Well-being coaching methods developed by Professor Robert Cloninger, and introduced in Sweden quite recently, has proven very beneficial results. Introducing the method and testing the theory in Italy, would prove the method and extended gen-eralizability that would be interesting from not only a scientific point of view, but also a very practical point of view. The research conducted in Sweden and that we now hope to extend to Italy is ex-tended in a series of countries. In Sweden the
University of Gothenburg in Collaboration with Blekinge Kompetenscentrum, Landstinget Blekinge
(http://ltblekinge.se/forskning-och-utveckling/blekingekompetenscentrum/) conducts the Well-Being Coaching program in Sweden in collaboration with the non-profit Anthropedia foundation (http://anthropedia.org) in St. Louis, USA and the Center for Well-Beingat the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA (http://psychobiology.wustl.edu). Since 2004, Anthropediafoundation is the pioneer organization to globally implement this program, applying evidenced-based approaches to health andwell-being to help people to grow in well-being through sustainable personal development. The Blekinge Center of Competence is the core of the Blekinge County Council's research and development, which comprises a scientific council, research, scientific supervisors, courses in research methodology, ethics, and well-being. Besides this, it also includes education facilities, guest offices,conference halls, and a medical library for staff, patients, researchers, students, and to some extent the public. The researchers andproject leaders at the Center work together with the five municipalities of Blekinge County and other County Councils in order to share skills and knowledge, as well as cost sharing, for the development of people ?s health and healthcare personnel in the wholeregion. The work is also connected to the regional administration of Blekinge and its educational Centers. The Center for Well-Beingat the Washington University in St. Louis has been leading in the development of the program, which integrates the psychologicalprinciples of cognitive behavioral therapy and person-centered therapy with the personality assessment.
The Center for Well-Being together with the Anthropedia Foundation has developed various modules designed to explain, clearly and comprehensively, the mechanisms involved in each aspect of this unique therapeutic program. The training is based on extensive research in personality development, neurobiology, and genetics. What sets apart the training at the Washington University in St. Louis is a truly interdisciplinary, integrative approach, and organized training. The Center for Well-Being at the Washington University in St. Louis was founded to develop a coherent therapy for the treatment of mental health disorders. Dr. C. Robert Cloninger, Director of the Center for Well-Being has spent the past twenty years developing an integrative biopsychosocial model of human personality. The Science of Well-Being examines the principles and mechanisms underlying the natural development of well-being in the individual.