In this thesis i wanted to research the nurse's role in the care of patients affected by eating disorders (DCA), I managed to find that the nurse role is not well defined yet. Caring of patients affected by eating disorders requires both generic assistance competences and specific ones related to the single disease complexity, those diseases needs to be faced also through the multidisciplinary equipe work. DCA are pathologies which cases are rising up, the most important ones are anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. I developed this thesis in three parts: in the first chapter, as introduction, I looked into DCA and all the issues linked to it, in the second one I wrote about how to care of DCA patients, in the third and last one I analyzed the nurse caring for those patients,mostly the role of the nurse whitin the equipe, the assistance to patients and families, and the relationship between the nurse and the patient. I developed those topics through the analysis of the recent literature and through on the field experiences I did to "Villa Rosa" in Modena and to the ward of Medicina Interna:obesità/DCA within the NOCSAE Baggiovara hospital. Here are the headlines of what I managed to learn:
-a nurse is a very important figure for the patient, both from the assistential side and from the relationship one;
-a nurse must guarantee the continuity of therapeutic relationship between patient and equipe;
-a nurse needs to build a real "helping relationship" with the patient;
-a nurse must develop an active skill in hearing;
-a nurse can help the patient in the rielaboration of his vision of self;
-a nurse can help in promoting the patient socialization in order to let him to think at something else, preventing him to focus on his body and food;
-a nurse must develop a trusted behaviour with patient in order to keep him calm.
Then the relationship between patient and nurse is really important, in particolar during meals. Having an emphatic and counseling approach is primary
