How the Practicing Physician Encounters Human Rights in Daily Clinical Situations

Our study shows the awareness and application of the concept of  human rights (understood as patient rights) in a hospital environment. We sought to determine whether such rights are respected, soliciting the opinion of patients and as to how it acts as a measure for whether service delivery is wholly effective in the conext of the clinician-patient relation. Our research was undertaken to signal a contemporary need in service delivery: health personnel involved in the delivery of surgical services have much to learn from the practical applications of human rights principles and the essential role they must fulfill in research and advocacy in order to improve the availability of surgical care globally. Human rights, medical ethics and empathy are parallel mechanisms working at the level of the patient-clinician relationship. This, in general, can influence the quality of care and communication for the better. Our study was conducted in 2011 and lasted 6 months. The research sites were the public hospitals located in the Kujavian-Pomeranian region of Poland. There were  two classes of hospitals: the first, had more than 400 beds (Group I) and the second one: above 400 beds (Group II). We solicted the opinion of 180 patients who had undergone laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The main planned outcome (hypothesis zero) of the study was that there were no differences between the two Groups of hospitals, and therefore no substantial variance in service delivery. The Mann-Whitney U test evidenced that judging by the significance level (p > 0.05), there is no basis for rejecting hypothesis zero.

The employee's productivity in the health care sector in Poland and their impact on the treatment process of patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Anna Rosiek,1,2 Aleksandra Rosiek-Kryszewska,3 Łukasz Leksowski,4 Tomasz Kornatowski,2 Krzysztof Leksowski2,5 1Ross-Medica, 2Faculty of Health Sciences, Public Health Department, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 3Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 4Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Rehabilitation, Nicolaus Copernicus University, 5Department of General Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Military Clinical Hospital in Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz, Poland Background: Increasing the engagement of employees in the treatment process of patients may benefit a hospital and employee productivity and may result in better patient care and satisfaction with medical services. Given this, the first step in improving the quality of patient care is better availability of doctors for patients in a hospital ward.Methods: The research for this paper was conducted in six health care units in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian province in Poland. The research assessed how the elements relating to employees’ behavior and things characteristic to medical service influence patients’ willingness to recommend a hospital.Results: Patients’ perception of services is linked with the behavior of medical employees and their engagement in the treatment process.Conclusion: Our research indicates that individual employee recognition and collective recognition of hospital employees as a whole were identified as the most important factors in employee engagement in the treatment process (employee productivity) and patients’ satisfaction with medical service. Keywords: employee’s productivity, workplace interventions to enhance health, hospitals, organizational health, medical staff, public healt

Occupational HIV risk for health care workers: risk factor and the risk of infection in the course of professional activities

Przemysław Wyżgowski,1 Anna Rosiek,2 Tomasz Grzela,1 Krzysztof Leksowski1,2 1Department of General Surgery, Military Hospital, 2Public Health Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Poland Abstract: Virtually created panic among health care workers about pandemic acquired immune deficiency syndrome prompted us to review the scientific literature to investigate the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission in the daily works of health care workers, especially surgeons and anesthesiologists. In this review, we report worldwide valuations of the number of HIV infections that may occur from unsafe daily work in health care. We also present how to minimize the risk of infection by taking precautions and how to utilize postexposure prophylaxis in accordance with the latest reports of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV-infected patients will be aging, and most of them will become the candidates for procedures such as major vascular reconstruction and artery bypass grafting, where the risks of blood contact and staff injury are high. For these reasons, all health care workers need to know how to prevent, and fight following the accidental exposure to HIV. Keywords: HIV infection, risk factor, anesthesiologist, surgeon

Occupational HIV risk for health care workers: risk factor and the risk of infection in the course of professional activities

Przemysław Wyżgowski,1 Anna Rosiek,2 Tomasz Grzela,1 Krzysztof Leksowski1,2 1Department of General Surgery, Military Hospital, 2Public Health Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Nicolas Copernicus University in Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Poland Abstract: Virtually created panic among health care workers about pandemic acquired immune deficiency syndrome prompted us to review the scientific literature to investigate the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission in the daily works of health care workers, especially surgeons and anesthesiologists. In this review, we report worldwide valuations of the number of HIV infections that may occur from unsafe daily work in health care. We also present how to minimize the risk of infection by taking precautions and how to utilize postexposure prophylaxis in accordance with the latest reports of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. HIV-infected patients will be aging, and most of them will become the candidates for procedures such as major vascular reconstruction and artery bypass grafting, where the risks of blood contact and staff injury are high. For these reasons, all health care workers need to know how to prevent, and fight following the accidental exposure to HIV. Keywords: HIV infection, risk factor, anesthesiologist, surgeon

Health behaviors of patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus and their influence on the patients’ satisfaction with life

Anna Rosiek,1 Tomasz Kornatowski,1 Natalia Frąckowiak-Maciejewska,1 Aleksandra Rosiek-Kryszewska,2 Przemysław Wyżgowski,3 Krzysztof Leksowski1,3 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, 2Department of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, 3Department of General Surgery, 10th Military Hospital, Bydgoszcz, Poland Background: The diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) carries with it a number of changes to the patient’s lifestyle. A healthy lifestyle, health and preventive behaviors, as well as healthy nutrition habits play a key role in treating T2DM as well as limiting its complications.Materials and methods: The aim of this study was the analysis of the correlation of T2DM patients’ health behaviors and their influence on the patients’ quality of life. The study was performed on a group of 50 patients from the Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship. In this study, the Health Behavior Inventory and the Satisfaction with Life Scale were used. The results were statistically analyzed. The study was approved by the ethics committee.Results: The intensity of severity of health behavior and satisfaction with life of T2DM patients depends on the gender of the patient (P<0.05). The analysis of the patients’ behaviors in four categories, proper eating habits (consuming vegetables, fruit, whole meal bread), health practices (daily physical activity, recreation, sleeping habits), preventive behaviors (including keeping to health recommendations), and positive mental attitude, showed substantial correlation of the Health Behavior Inventory and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (P<0.05).Conclusion: The categorization of the prohealth behaviors shown by diabetics allowed us to measure the connection between the individual categories of satisfaction with life. Males with T2DM showed a higher satisfaction with life score than females with the same diagnosis. The analysis showed that patients with a higher intensity of health behaviors also had superior health behaviors. The resulting correlations prove a notable relationship. Keywords: living with diabetes, experience and perception of patients, type 2 diabetes, health behaviors, satisfaction with life, lifestyle, noncommunicable disease