Zygmunt Grudzinski, 1870-1929.

This history page in the series "Leaders in MSK Radiology" is dedicated to the memory and achievements of Zygmunt Grudzinski, Polish radiologist at the University of Warsaw and founder of the Polish Society of Radiology and Polish Radiological Review, the first radiology journal.

Patient Targeted Googling by nurses and midwives in Poland.

INTRODUCTION: Patient Targeted Googling (PTG) is not a new phenomenon, but in Poland - according to the information available to the authors - there has been no research in this area among nurses and midwives. The above-mentioned activity is associated with many doubts and concerns of legal and ethical issues, and therefore there is a need to explore it. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of PTG among nurses and midwives in Poland. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study conducted among 300 working nurses and midwives used a diagnostic survey based on the author's survey questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using PQStat version: 1.8.4.142. Mann-Whitney U tests, chi-square and Fisher's correlations were used. The significance level was adopted at p <0.05 and highly significant at p <0.01. RESULTS: The respondents' reasons for patient targeted googling were mainly lack of other sources of information, controlling adherence to recommendations, ascertaining the patient's mental disorders, behavior, substance abuse status and physical appearance. PTG without informing the patient was considered unethical and likely to violate the principle of informed consent and privacy. Respondents expressed the need for PTG training. CONCLUSIONS: The study presents the prevalence of PTG phenomenon among Polish nurses and midwives along with the different determinants of this activity.

OBTAINING INFORMED CONSENT TO MEDICAL PROCEDURES.

Informed patient consent to a medical procedure is a prerequisite for the treatment process to be legal. Actions taken for the good of a person are regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, international documents, and statutory law. The provisions of the Act on the Professions of Physician and Dentist or the Act on the Professions of Nurse and Midwife are significant here as well. Moreover, the issues of respect for the patient are tackled by the Act on the Patient's Rights and the Patient's Rights Ombudsman. As prescribed in the Medical Code of Ethics, the physician's mission is to protect human life and health, prevent diseases, treat the ill. It is a legal and deontological tool allowing selection of a medical procedure for the patient. Both law and medicine are predominated by the view that any action performed by the physician without the patient's consent is unlawful even if performed for a therapeutic purpose. The border of these two scientific fields is where a clash occurs between legally protected interests: life and health on the one hand, and the right to autonomy on the other. The provisions of Art. 192 of the Polish Penal Code protect the patient's right to self-determination in the scope of agreement to or rejection of therapeutic procedures, also in situations where their life or health are threatened. The paper aims to analyze possible issues related to consents to treatment of adults capable of expressing informed consents.

PAs in Poland: The inaugural surgical PA curriculum.

ABSTRACT: After many years of consultations with the international physician assistant (PA) community and a successful pilot program, in November 2021, the Polish Ministry of Health approved a specialty training program for surgical PAs. The inaugural class began studies in July 2022. This article details the circumstances and the process that led to the creation of this new program.

Shaping Public Perception: Polish Illustrated Press and the Image of Polish Naturalists Working in Latin America, 1844-1885.

This article will investigate the ways in which Polish illustrated press contributed to communicating and reporting the work of Polish émigré naturalists working in Latin America to the Polish general public living in the Prussian, Russian and Austrian partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1844-1885. It examines the ways in which illustrations were used to shape the public's opinion about the significance of these migrants' scientific achievements. The Polish illustrated press, its authors and editors were instrumental in shaping the public's perceptions of the reach of Polish scientists, and exploring their impact on broader scientific debates, thereby situating Polish people and their work in a global context. The didactic and opinion-making role of the illustrated press was highly influential among Polish audiences during this period, at a time when the survival of Polish identity, culture, language, and education was uncertain. Illustrated weeklies were one of the vectors through which high science was made accessible to the Polish public. A study of pictures in Polish illustrated press will help to explain how they contributed towards shaping the images in the public eye of naturalists' scientific work, and discourses about science and its actors more broadly.

The enhancement of the employer branding strategies of Polish hospitals through the detection of features which determine employer attractiveness: a multidimensional perspective.

BACKGROUND: Polish healthcare providers already struggle with a deficiency concerning human resources, especially with regard to doctors and nurses. Because of this, effective HRM interventions should be taken in order to attract and retain medical personnel. Employer branding is one such intervention because it not only results in improving the organization's reputation as an employer but also improving HRM practices. However, to create an effective employer branding strategy, a contextual approach should be taken. Because of this, the aim of the study is to assess the importance of various factors influencing medical personnel's perception of a hospital's attractiveness as an employer. METHODS: The study was performed among 285 hospitals in Poland assuming a confidence level of 0.95. In each hospital, five respondents took part in the survey. The first cohort of respondents named 'Directors' consisted of hospital directors or employees authorized by them, mostly HR specialists. The other four groups were: 'Hybrid Doctors Managers' (individuals who had the roles of both doctor and manager); 'Hybrid Nurses Managers' (having the roles of both manager and nurse); 'Physicians'; 'Nurses'. Due to the ordinal nature of the data, the chi-square test of independence was used and the V-Cramer coefficient was determined. To indicate significant discrepancies between the responses of the respondents' cohorts, the Kruskal-Wallis rank test was conducted. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Various groups of respondents perceive hospital attractiveness as an employer differently. While the opinions of medical personnel are more or less homogeneous, the cohort of employees responsible for HRM are less consistent with regard to their perception of hospital attractiveness. Additionally, 'Directors' highlight tangible factors determining hospital desirability. Moreover, their hierarchy of the top five factors influencing EB clearly exposes their quantitative orientation towards hospital performance management. Medical personnel hierarchies of the determinants expose qualitative orientation. Excluding country-dependent factors, such as regularity of remuneration payment, the professionals value such determinants as a nice work atmosphere, cooperation with colleagues (specialists), good working conditions and, most importantly, employment stability. The last determinant results from generational and gender tendencies (feminization), and yet it stands in contradiction with a tendency of flexible employment implemented in most developed countries due to a lack of medical personnel. CONCLUSIONS: The results showed the importance of adapting employer branding strategies to the medical professional groups (doctors and nurses). This is because their perception of employers' attractiveness differ. In addition, elements of the profession genotypes play an important role in how the physicians and nurses value various factors creating the employers' attractiveness. The research also revealed the fact that top managers or HR specialists can wrongly identify the hospitals attractiveness since they are more quantitatively than qualitatively oriented. For this reason, they may implement inefficient EB strategies.

Ways of walking, speaking and listening: Nursing practices and professional identities among Polish nurses in Norway.

This article explores the lived experiences of Polish nurses' transition into the Norwegian healthcare system and analyses the emerging differences in nursing practices and professional identities between Poland and Norway. It draws on ethnographic findings and argues that nursing is a complex practice, which involves not only nursing knowledge, but also less obvious and often taken for granted nursing imaginaries and actions. In doing so, the article looks at different ways of walking, speaking and listening, which are not merely nurses' daily habits, but also the embodiments of hierarchical relations, agency and empowerment in healthcare settings. This kind of analytical perspective of the existing differences in nursing practices and professional identities between Poland and Norway raises crucial questions about transitional contexts of nurse migration and shows that nursing is not static, but rather a dynamic and processual way of conduct.

MIECZYSLAW KONOPACKI - THE OUTSTANDING POLISH HISTOLOGIST, ANATOMIST, AND FREEMASON ACTIVIST.

This article presents the life and work of Professor Mieczyslaw Konopacki, a Polish physician, freemason, social and political activist. Mieczyslaw Konopacki was born in 1880 in Wielun, a town with almost 800 years of history. After passing his secondary school-leaving examinations in 1899, he began his studies at the University of Warsaw. Thanks to his diligence and commitment to research, in 1903, he received the degree of candidate of all-natural sciences at the Imperial Warsaw University. In the same year, he was arrested by the Russian authorities for his involvement in developing education in the Polish countryside and forced to move to Cracow, where he began his studies at the Faculty of Medicine of the Jagiellonian University. In 1907, he married and moved to Lviv with his wife, who was also an embryologist. There, the couple began working at the Histology Department. Also, there, in 1911, Mieczyslaw Konopacki obtained his doctor's degree in medicine. He was an extremely hard-working and broad-minded man. He was a member of many associations and international scholar organizations. He took an active part in many congresses and symposia. In independent Poland, Professor Konopacki was involved in the organization of science. He tried to compensate for the many years of neglect caused by the policy of the partitioners. In 1933 Professor Konopacki was elected Vice President of the Warsaw Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. Complementing the social activity of Professor Konopacki was his activity in the Grand National Lodge of Poland. He died in Warsaw on September 25, 1939, fatally struck by shrapnel from a German bullet.

[Karol Kaczkowski (1787-1867) General of Staff of the Polish Army, epidemiologist, innovator, teacher]. / Karol Kaczkowski (1787-1867) general sztabu, lekarz-epidemiolog, innowator, nauczyciel.

The name of Karol Kaczkowski, one of the pioneers of Polish epidemiology of the 19th century, has been somewhat forgotten. Hence, it is worth getting acquainted with his actions that he made contributing to the effective inhibition of the spread of the cholera epidemic that hit Polish territory in the 1830s. KAROL KACZKOWSKI (1797-1867) General of Staff of the Polish Army, doctor, professor, He was born in Warsaw on 2 February 1797. In 1805 his parents moved to Krzemieniec. In 1815, he began medical studies at the University of Vilnius. He was friends with philomaths: Adam Mickiewicz and Tomasz Zan. In 1821 he obtained the degree of doctor of medicine. In the years 1824-1828 he traveled around Europe. In 1829, he was nominated the Head of the Therapeutic Clinic at the University of Warsaw. After the outbreak of the November Uprising on November 29, 1830, he joined the artillery and in 1831 was appointed chief physician of the Polish Army. He organized the command of the military health service, hospitals and field hospitals. After the battle of Grochów, he organized battalion dressing points and a cordon of doctors who provided quick help to the wounded. On February 5, 1831, Karol Kaczkowski was appointed the Chief Physician of the Polish Army. When the first cholera patients, brought in by the Russian army, arrived in Warsaw in the spring of 1831, he prepared instructions on how to detect and treat cholera. He created cholera hospitals in Mienia and Warsaw, and sanitary supervision in military units. For this he was awarded the Wirtuti Militari Gold Cross. After the fall of the uprising, he left Poland with a group of 2,000. injured. He got to Prussia, and then to Lviv. In 1854 he settled in Zytomierz. He suffered harassment from the tsarist authorities. In 1863, during the January Uprising, he was sent to the Voronezh Governorate. In 1867, he obtained a permit to travel to Kherson, where he died on September 14, 1867.

Value based healthcare - principles and recommendations for organizational solutions in Poland.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is is to present the assumptions of the Value Based Healthcare concept, the related benefits and examples of countries in which the concept is implemented. The article also proposes solutions based on the VBHC model that could be implemented in the Polish healthcare system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search was conducted using the PubMed via Ovid database using the following keywords: Gray literature items were also analyzed using the Google Scholar tool and other documents, eg of the European Commission. Then the work was divided into the following thematic areas: definitions and principles of VBHC, benefits and challenges related to the implementation of the model, VBHC in Europe, recommendations for solutions in Poland based on VBHC. Value Based Healthcare (VBHC) is a healthcare financing model developed by M. Porter and E. Teisberg. It is based on the assumptions of financing healthcare providers based on treatment outcomes, that is, values. This concept was created in connection with the constantly growing costs in the American healthcare system, which, however, did not translate into health indicators in the population. The aim of VBHC is to minimize the cost of the system while achieving the best result for the patient. In this model of healthcare organization, it is assumed that those healthcare providers who provide the best quality care should be best financed, thus contributing to cure or significantly improving the quality of life of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Value Based Healthcare is the recommended method of financing due to the optimization of healthcare expenses while maintaining the appropriate quality of services provided to patients. Currently, many countries in Europe and around the world have started implementing this system solution. However, the transition from a service charge to value for money model is a complex process. In the authors' opinion, the longterm benefits of such a financing model bring a significant improvement in the quality of services and patient satisfaction.

[New physiotherapist status in the polish health care system].

OBJECTIVE: In Poland, over 66,000 physiotherapists are practicing. For many years, the profession of physiotherapist was not regulated by law. The Act on the profession of physiotherapist has been in force since May 31, 2016. In 2019, physiotherapists obtained new rights in the field of therapeutic rehabilitation financed by the National Health Fund. Currently, they can already choose / order rehabilitation and order medical devices under the conditions of the law. The aim of the article is to present and analyze changes in law affecting the new status of a physiotherapist in the healthcare system in Poland. In addition, drawing attention to changes in the competence of doctors in the field of therapeutic rehabilitation and the principles of their cooperation with physiotherapists. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: The analysis shows that changes in law in recent years have significantly influenced the increase in the role of physiotherapists in the health care system, and they are also important for practicing the medical profession.

[NURSE IN THE POLISH HEALTH CARE SYSTEM [ARTICLE IN POLISH]].

Nurses are the largest group of Polish medical staff. There are currently approximately 230,000 nurses employed in Poland. There is a statutory profession for many years. Nurses provide health services on the basis of a medical order or on their own. As a result of changes in the law, the scope of their professional competences has been increasing for several years, including to independently administer medicines and issue prescriptions. The purpose of the article is to present and analyze legal norms determining the status of a nurse in the Polish health care system. In addition, the definition of the statutory principles of cooperation between doctors and nurses. The analysis shows that changes in law in recent years have significantly influenced the increase in the role of nurses in the health care system and they are also relevant to the practice of the medical profession.

SAFETY OF PATIENTS AND MEDICAL STAFF IN CURRICULA AND TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS IN UKRAINE.

OBJECTIVE: The aim: The Canada and Poland experience in the educational field in the practical implementation of international practices for the prevention of patient safety incidents is significant, taking into consideration the effectiveness of health care models. We have to analyze the documents on the training of medical professionals in terms of safety as a first step in introducing into the domestic (Ukrainian) medical educational practice of existing international experience in teaching patient safety. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Materials and methods: The research was based on international documents on patient safety, thematic scientific publications, plans, and programs for the training of medical professionals in Ukraine. Bibliosemantic, systems analysis, mathematical (relative values) research methods were used in the study. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: The analysis of thematic plans of separate disciplines in "Nursing" specialty has shown, that according to experts, questions of safety of patients should contain more than in 70% of subjects; on the topics of classes safety issues are provided in the range from 45.1% (basics of nursing) to 0.0% (anesthesiology and resuscitation); the actual content of educational and methodical materials was from 14.6% (basics of nursing) to 0.0% (anesthesiology and resuscitation). The time allotted to study disciplines related to occupational safety and health of health workers (life safety, basics of bioethics and biosafety, as well as occupational safety in the industry) is six times higher than the hours of study of the discipline (medical law) related to patient safety in the Working Curriculum (second (master's) level of higher education in the field of knowledge 22 "health" specialty 222 "medicine"). As a result of the analysis of work programs of educational disciplines at all levels of medical specialists training, a sharp discrepancy in the new information support of the educational process was revealed in terms of patient safety.

Poland and physician assistants.

Historically, physician assistants (PAs) or their equivalent have been used to offset shortages of healthcare providers in many parts of the world. Poland, having been strongly influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union, revived the feldsher in the post-world war era. With a successful expansion of medical schools, the eventual surplus of physicians meant feldshers were no longer needed. In the early 2000s, Poland found itself in yet another medical provider crisis and turned toward the creation of the Polish PA profession.

A nursing shortage - a prospect of global and local policies.

AIM: The article addresses selected determinants of the nursing shortage in Poland and other countries in the face of employee ageing. BACKGROUND: Global demographic changes have led to a systematic increase in the elderly population and a decreasing number of births, which have impacted health policy and healthcare systems in various countries. Both processes necessitate transitions in global health care. Nursing care, which has faced a human resources crisis, is a strategic area within this context. SOURCES OF EVIDENCE: This study is based on national listings and strategic documents for nursing policy in Poland, including Increasing average age of nurses and midwives prepared by the Polish Main Council of Nurses and Midwives, the incorporation of big data, international reports and a literature review on nursing and healthcare challenges. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS: This paper argues that the causes of the nursing shortage are multifaceted with no single global or local measure of its nature. An overview of the problem indicates ineffective planning and use of available nursing resources, poor recruitment or an undersupply of a new staff, and global demographic conditions. The overview highlights the fact that nursing shortages have reached a critical point for healthcare services on both the local and global levels. CONCLUSIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: The general recommendations for nursing policy include the need to prepare and implement national social security agendas into services provided by nurses. Such a programme would include general issues: improving working and employment conditions, implementing mechanisms regulating salary and providing the possibility of lifelong learning with the incorporation of mobile and technological innovations as a sustainable solution.

[Eksperymenty medyczne w polskim systemie ochrony zdrowia].

The development of medical sciences is associated with conducting medical experiments. However, they raise social concerns. Every year in Poland, medical experiments are carried out with the participation of man and doctors participate in them. Clinical trials are a special type of medical experiment. The law regulates the principles of performing medical experiments. The purpose of the article is to present the legal conditions for conducting medical experiments in the Polish healthcare system.

[Physicians' contribution in the creation and development of bioethics in Poland]. / Wklad lekarzy w powstanie i rozwój bioetyki w Polsce.

Bioethics was created in the 70s of the last century. From this period come works written by Van Resselaer Potter and André Hellegers, in which the authors raised the issue of the need to discuss the progress and to define a new reflection, they used for the first time in the scientific literature the term bioethics. In the United States of America, as well as in European countries, institutions began to emerge in which scientific bioethical reflection was realized. In Poland in the 1970s, the socio-political situation was not conducive to the integration of scientific circles or the freedom of exchange of views. Significant progress in the field of medicine, emerging new treatment options, posed questions that had to be answered. The questions were formulated in different environments, including by doctors who themselves participated in the progress of medical sciences, introducing, for example, new increasingly aggressive treatments, or saw new challenges emerging in the medical profession, which were not regulated by the hitherto applied principles of classical medical ethics. The article describes the achievements of prof. Jan Nielubowicz, prof. Józef Bogusz and prof. Tadeusz Kielanowski in the creation of Polish bioethical regulations in the field of experimental research in humans, the activity of prof. Kornel Gibinki in the formation of Bioethics Commisions, contribution of prof. Stefan Raszeja and prof. Marek Sych in bioethical education of the society and the role of prof. Krzysztof Szczygiel in the creation of the first Polish scientific bioethical unit.

[The basic legal standards for practicing the doctor profession].

Nowadays, the proper practice of the doctor profession also requires knowledge of the law. The basic legal standards for practicing the doctror profession are set out in the Act on the Medical Profession of 1996. The statutory duties of a physician are primarily related to the rights of the patient. The aim of the article is to present and analyze the most important statutory standards for practicing every doctor in Poland. These include the information obligation and consent to health services as well as respect for patient dignity.

Use of work-life balance benefits guaranteed by law in Poland - Do size of the enterprise and gender matter?

BACKGROUND: The paper is aimed at indicating the similarities and differences in use of benefits supporting work-life balance (WLB) between women and men working in Polish small/medium and large enterprises. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The sample included 556 workers (311 women, 245 men), aged 20-68 years old employed on the basis of employment contracts for at least a year in Polish enterprises. The respondents completed a questionnaire on the use of benefits guaranteed by the Polish Labour Code, referring to their current workplaces. RESULTS: Women took maternity leaves and returned to the same work position after using childcare leaves more often than men. Men took leaves on demand more often than women. Our results also showed that in comparison to women working in smaller enterprises, those working in large enterprises were more likely to use almost all the analyzed WLB benefits - paid days off to take care of others, educational leaves, leaves on demand, maternity leaves and return to the same work position after childcare leave, reduction of business trips when pregnant or having young children and breastfeeding breaks. The size of enterprise, however, did not differentiate the take-up of benefits among the studied men. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis brought unexpected results on the lack of common availability of the WLB benefits guaranteed by the law in the case of employees who worked on the basis of employment contracts. We also found that women used most of child rearing benefits guaranteed by the law more often than men, which might reflect still a traditional division of child care responsibilities in Poland. Med Pr 2017;68(5):575-581.

Labour migration of Polish nurses: a questionnaire survey conducted with the Computer Assisted Web Interview technique.

BACKGROUND: According to data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Poland has one of the lowest numbers of nurses (5.2) per 1000 inhabitants among 28 EU countries. The migration of nurses from Poland has particular importance in the context of scarce human resources in this professional group, especially given the increasingly ageing population in European societies, which will entail an increased demand for nursing and care services. The aim of the study was to obtain information on the intentions of Polish nurses to migrate for work to other countries in the European region. METHODS: The study included 581 nurses, professionally active in Poland over the duration of the study. The Computer Assisted Web Interview technique was used to collect data. Nurses filled in a web-based questionnaire that was available from December 5, 2011, to March 5, 2012. The choice of respondents for the sample was based on the availability of data. An invitation to participate in the study could be viewed on selected websites from the Portal of Nurses and Midwives, the Supreme Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, and the Polish Nursing Society. The survey questionnaire was designed by the authors, which served as the primary research tool. RESULTS: Nearly one in three respondents intended to leave Poland for professional reasons. Overall, 12.4 % of respondents had already worked as a nurse abroad. The main destinations for migration included Germany, followed by England and Norway. The intended length of stay abroad ranged from 2-5 years. CONCLUSIONS: In the studied group of Polish nurses, there was great interest in seeking employment abroad. Nurses tend to go abroad mostly for long-term, repeated periods to the wealthiest countries nearest to Poland. In view of the low level of human resources in the Polish nursing sector, the migration of Polish nurses will probably have crucial implications for the quality of healthcare services in Poland in the coming years. Given the methodology applied, study findings refer solely to the study group.