Objectives To assess life satisfaction, job satisfaction, life orientation and the level of professional burnout in a group of professionally active nurses and midwives. Design A cross-sectional study. Setting This study was conducted between March and October of 2017 during specialisation training at the European Centre for Postgraduate Education in Wroclaw, Poland. Participants A group of 350 professionally active nurses (n=293) and midwives (n=57) were enrolled in the study. Outcome measures Associations between burnout and selected life-related and job-related outcomes using (1) the Satisfaction With Job Scale, (2) the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), (3) the Life Orientation Test-Revised, (4) the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Authors’ Designed Questionnaire regarding sociodemographic factors. The level of statistical significance was set at p≤0.05 (with a CI of 95%). Results The vast majority of participants were those in the ages of 41–50 years old (40.57%), women (96.86%) and people with bachelor’s degree (46.29%). The average overall rate for occupational burnout was 34.67 per 100 points. Assessment of occupational burnout subscale showed that the most significant factor was emotional exhaustion at 39.14 points (SD=28.15). Job satisfaction, life satisfaction and life orientation assessed with SWLS significantly affects each of the occupational burnout subscales (p<0.05). Conclusions The level of occupational burnout in nurses and midwives appeared to be low. It has been revealed that such determinants as life satisfaction, job satisfaction and life orientation do not allow for developing an occupational burnout.

Background: Frail older people are at high risk of developing adverse outcomes, such as disability, mortality, hospitalization, and institutionalization. Previous research suggests that the Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) is a valid and reliable instrument for measuring frailty. The aim of this study was to adapt and to test the reliability of the Polish version of the TFI. Method: A standard guideline was used for translation and cultural adaptation of the English version of the TFI into Polish. The study included 100 Polish patients (mean age 68.2±6.5 years), among them 42 men and 58 women. Cronbach’s alpha was used for analysis of the internal consistency of the TFI. Results: The mean total TFI score was 6.7±3.1. Forty patients scored ≥5, which corresponded to being frail. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the instrument ranged from 0.68 to 0.72 and item-total correlation ranged from 0.12 to 0.52. Conclusion: The TFI is valid and reproducible for assessment of frailty syndrome among a Polish population. The Polish adaptation of the TFI proved a useful and fast tool for assessing frailty.

Background/Objectives: Vaccination programs are essential for preventing infectious diseases, yet the effectiveness of these programs varies significantly across Central and Eastern European countries due to diverse socio-economic, cultural, and political influences. This study examines vaccination trends in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, focusing on misinformation, regional healthcare disparities, and socio-cultural factors on vaccination rates. Methods: A comprehensive review of national policies, vaccination rates, and factors influencing vaccine hesitancy was conducted across seven Central and Eastern European countries. Input from local health stakeholders and national data sources was analysed to contextualize vaccination patterns and challenges. Results: Significant cross-country variation was observed. Hungary and the Czech Republic reported consistently high coverage of mandatory childhood vaccinations, while Romania and Ukraine experienced severe declines in uptake, leading to outbreaks of measles and polio. Slovakia demonstrated low COVID-19 vaccination willingness, and Poland recorded a sharp increase in formal vaccine refusals. Conversely, Lithuania implemented successful campaigns that improved uptake, particularly for influenza and pneumococcal vaccines. Differences were influenced by healthcare system structure, public trust, exposure to misinformation, and digital communication strategies. Conclusion: Addressing vaccine hesitancy requires targeted, context-sensitive communication and digital literacy programs. Additionally, policy reforms to enhance accessibility, particularly in rural areas, and real-time monitoring systems can strengthen vaccination rates. Cross-border collaboration and tailored public health campaigns addressing cultural and socio-economic challenges are necessary to improve immunization coverage in these regions.

Evaluation of health care service quality in Poland with the use of SERVQUAL method at the specialist ambulatory health care center Stanisław Manulik,1 Joanna Rosińczuk,2 Piotr Karniej3 1Non-Public Health Care Institution, “Ambulatory of Cosmonauts” Ltd. Liability Company, 2Department of Nervous System Diseases, Faculty of Health Science, 3Department of Organization and Management, Faculty of Health Science, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland Introduction: Service quality and customer satisfaction are very important components of competitive advantage in the health care sector. The SERVQUAL method is widely used for assessing the quality expected by patients and the quality of actually provided services.Objectives: The main purpose of this study was to determine if patients from state and private health care facilities differed in terms of their qualitative priorities and assessments of received services.Materials and methods: The study included a total of 412 patients: 211 treated at a state facility and 201 treated at a private facility. Each of the respondents completed a 5-domain, 22-item SERVQUAL questionnaire. The actual quality of health care services in both types of facilities proved significantly lower than expected.Results: All the patients gave the highest scores to the domains constituting the core aspects of health care services. The private facility respondents had the highest expectations with regard to equipment, and the state facility ones regarding contacts with the medical personnel.Conclusion: Health care quality management should be oriented toward comprehensive optimization in all domains, rather than only within the domain identified as the qualitative priority for patients of a given facility. Keywords: health care service quality, patients’ expectations, qualitative priorities, outpatient health care facilities

Background: The aim of the study was to assess the determinants of the sleep disorders that occur among nurses working in a shift system by assessing the influence of sociodemographic factors, the impact of shift work, and the occurrence of occupational burnout. Methods: The study included 300 nurses who work shifts in the Silesian Region (Poland). The research was conducted using standardized research tools: the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), the Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results: Among the sociodemographic factors, in the KSS analysis, sleep disorders were most common in men (CI: 0.038; p < 0.001), in divorced individuals (CI: 1.436; p = 0.045), and in individuals who were overweight (CI: 1.927; p = 0.026). Multiple linear regression showed that sleep disorders (p < 0.001) were an independent predictor of MBI among nurses who worked shifts. Conclusions: Sleep disturbances affect the burnout of nurses who work shifts.

A patient is not, or at least should not be, a passive subject, but the active participant of the process of asthma treatment. This naturally imposes covering patients with bronchial asthma with a holistic model of care. Assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is one component of this model. HRQoL of asthma patients can be determined with an array of generic instruments, e.g., Medical Outcomes Survey Short Form 36 (SF-36), EuroQoL questionnaire (EQ-5D) or World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL), as well as with the specific tools, among which Saint George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRO) and Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ) belong to the most widely used. HRQoL is significantly associated with the degree of asthma control. However, literature data suggest that a determination of HRQoL alone, with either specific or generic instrument, can be insufficient, as the level of health-related quality of life turned out to be modulated by three groups of factors: (1) demographic characteristics of patients, (2) clinical parameters, and (3) personality traits of respondents. Due to particularly strong effect of psychological characteristics on the quality of life of patients with bronchial asthma, also the level of depressiveness should be examined along with the HRQoL determination. Furthermore, complex assessment of the quality of life and its determinants should be conducted longitudinally, either in individual patients or in epidemiological studies.