Assessment of Satisfaction with Health Services among Prisoners-Descriptive Study.

AIM: The aim of the study was to assess the access of prisoners to healthcare services, as well as the level of satisfaction with the provided services and health assessment among prisoners. METHODS: The research was conducted in one of the penitentiary centers in Poland among people jailed between 1 January to 31 January 2020. The response rate of the self-administrated questionnaire was 52.05% (469/901) participants. There were 389 men and 77 women. RESULTS: Prisoners assessed access to health services including GP doctors, specialist doctors, dentists, and hospitals in 3 categories: "bad" ranged: 27.03-67.60%; "medium" ranged: 22.54-53.57%; "good" ranged: 7.02-33.96% depending on the type of arrest, but no statistical significance was demonstrated. Satisfaction with the health services defined as "bad" ranged: 25.00-61.11%; "medium" ranged: 18.97-55.56%; "good" ranged: 5.56-34.62% depending on the type of arrest but no statistical significance was demonstrated. Of 469 prisoners, 215 prisoners (45.84%) declared no addictions. The frequency of addiction does not differ depending on the place/type of punishment served (p = 0.9). In turn, 317 prisoners (68%) declared no chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Most of the prisoners described access to health services as "bad", except female prisoners from a semi-open facility. In turn, satisfaction with healthcare services was most often assessed as "bad", except for temporarily arrested men and female prisoners from a semi-open facility.

The severity of work-related stress and an assessment of the areas of worklife in the service sector.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study was to examine the potential differences in the assessment of the severity of work-related stress, and in the global assessment of the areas of worklife and individual worklife dimensions in employees working in service occupations. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The research covered 61 emergency workers, 92 helping professionals, and 58 knowledge workers. A subjective assessment of the areas of worklife was carried out using the Areas of Worklife Survey, and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) was used to investigate stress severity. RESULTS: The research has revealed statistically significant differences between workers belonging to the 3 groups of service occupations in their assessment of the severity of work-related stress. The findings have shown that 26% of the variance of the Stress Severity Assessment variable is explained by belonging to a specific occupational group. Police officers and helping professionals experience comparably severe stress, which is significantly stronger than that experienced by the laboratory staff. Statistically significant differences have also been found between the studied groups in terms of the global assessment of all areas of worklife, as well as in the assessment of particular areas, i.e., control, rewards, fairness and values. No significant differences have been found with regard to the workload and community areas. CONCLUSIONS: Working in social service occupations, whether as emergency or helping professionals, may lead to a similar level of stress severity. The surveyed workers do not differ in their assessment of workload or of the sense of trust, cooperation and support received from their co-workers. Further research should be carried out to explore the sources of stress, which may be linked to other factors than the areas of worklife presented here, such as stress inducing contact with customers, environmental determinants of work, existing hazards to life or health, or the intrinsic predispositions of individuals performing specific types of work and gender. Int J Occup Med Environ Health. 2019;32(4):569-84.

[Work ethic, organizational commitment and burnout]. / Etyka pracy i przywiazanie organizacyjne a wypalenie zawodowe.

BACKGROUND: This work aims to present the results of a research study on the relations between work ethic, organizational commitment and job burnout. The authors investigated a sample of employees representing different industries and companies, e.g., lawyers, IT specialists, medical doctors, clerks, teachers and railwaymen (N = 335). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The research study was based on the Job Demands-Resources model. The work ethic measured by the Polish adaptation of the Multidimensional Work Ethic Profile consisted of 8 factors: the value of hard work, work as a central value of life, unwillingness to waste time, aversion to free time, delayed gratification, self-reliance, morality, and work as a moral duty. The organizational commitment measured by the Organizational Commitment Scale consisted of 3 components: affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment. To measure job burnout, the Polish adaptation of the Link Burnout Questionnaire was used, which is composed of 4 dimensions of burnout: psycho-physical exhaustion, relationship deterioration, the sense of professional failure, and disillusion. RESULTS: The study shows that work ethic dimensions and organizational commitment are negatively correlated with job burnout. Significant predictors which can reduce job burnout include work as a moral duty, the value of hard work, work as a central value of life, aversion to free time and morality as dimensions of work ethic and affective commitment. CONCLUSIONS: Some dimensions of work ethic and organizational commitment constitute job resources and can decrease job burnout. Work ethic, and affective and normative commitment reduce the sense of disillusion. Med Pr. 2019;70(3):305-16.