Smoke-free hospitals in Poland - a cross-sectional survey.

Introduction: In 2010, the government of Poland passed an amended smoke-free law that strengthened existing tobacco control policies and banned smoking in hospitals. The aims of our study are: to determine the state of smoke-free practices in Polish hospitals, and to identify challenges facing hospitals implementing smoke-free practices. Material and methods: In 2018, a cross-sectional survey was conducted on a representative sample of 100 hospitals operating in Poland. The research tool was the ENSH-Global Self-Audit Questionnaire. The questionnaire included 48 items related to the various aspects of smoke-free policy implementation in the hospital. Results: Among the surveyed hospitals, public entities were the dominant group (79%). The mean score for all analyzed standards was 78.55 points (out of 144 maximum available), with no differences (p = 0.4) between public and private entities. All hospitals surveyed displayed signage with information about prohibited tobacco products and tobacco-free campus boundaries. Hospital staff (95%) and service users (98%) reported a basic level of understanding of the hospital's tobacco-free policy and the available tobacco cessation services. However, tobacco-free policies, in line with the ENSH-Global Standards, were implemented in 61% of surveyed hospitals. More than half of the hospitals (64%) do not currently assess tobacco use or provide tobacco dependence treatment services. Conclusions: Overall, smoke-free policies in hospitals operating in Poland are compliant with the National Tobacco Control Act and provide a smoke-free environment for service users and staff. However, continued monitoring and evaluation of tobacco control activities are necessary to promote the importance of smoke-free environments.

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.

[Skill mix in medical and about medical professions]. / Krzyzujace sie kompetencje (skill mix) w zawodach medycznych i okolomedycznych.

An important problem faced by many healthcare systems is the shortage of medical staff, and in particular doctors and nurses. Their number, competences and qualifications determine the level of availability and quality of medical services. Unfortunately, the demand for medical services is increasing, along with the progressive aging of the population, as well as the increase in the incidence of chronic diseases and frequent reforms of health systems. Employee costs related to healthcare are the most burdensome for the system; therefore, based on the available resources, it is necessary to create effective teams of sector employees. This results in rationalizing employment, or providing new medical and about medical competencies to new groups of professionals, which gives rise to the skill mix phenomenon. A well-prepared and implemented skill mix contributes to improving the quality of patient care, increased patient satisfaction and better clinical outcomes. In the process of mixing of competences, the roles that have been exercised so far are being changed. While some professionals are expanding their existing roles, other employees are required to accept some aspects of the previous roles. In Poland, in order to counteract such negative trends (the shortage of doctors), changes have been introduced to increase access to medical services (e.g., nurses and midwives being vested with the right to issue prescriptions and medical ordinances, paramedics - with the right to perform medical emergency services and provide healthcare services, and physiotherapists - with the right to conduct independent physiotherapeutic visits). A new profession of a medical coordinator has also been introduced. Med Pr. 2020;71(3):337-52.