Online communication between healthcare professionals and citizens: first report 
on the activities of the Italian Federation of Nurses (IPASVI)

In the spring of 2011 the Italian Federation of Nurses (IPASVI), with the reorganization of its website, opened a direct channel of communication with the citizens: the page For the Citizen, that in its 3 sections Click Health, ABC Health and The Nurse Answers provides information and advice on medical problems, healthy lifestyles and nursing care. The aim of this study is to analyze the activity and attractiveness of the page.

 The data were collected using the reports of Google Analytics about the activity of the page For the Citizen between May 2011 and December 2012.

Overall, during the whole period considered the page was visited 306,674 times (85,600 in 2011 and 221,074 in 2012), with 133,826 visits to the section Click Health (23,658 and 110,168 respectively), 125,424 to ABC Health (42,048 and 83,376) and 17,073 to The Nurse Answers (7,244 and 9,829).

This is the first report on the communication project undertaken by the IPASVI Federation: the results are definitely encouraging, and confirm the goodness of the choice made. The level of activity of the page For the Citizen is indicative of a growing need for online health information, and the information filtered by professional nurses guarantees the quality and clarity of the content. However, in order to strengthen this type of communication further studies will be necessary to understand how people use the information provided, and how this information meets their needs and influences their choices in terms of health.

 citizens, health information, websites, nurses