BackgroundAccording 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.MethodsThe 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.ResultsNearly 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.ConclusionsIn 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.
ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine how often patients and undiagnosed people who complain of musculoskeletal system and rheumatic diseases look for knowledge contained on an Internet forum. Content analysis was used to identify the level of Internet users’ activity in the rheumatology section, compared to other areas of medicine.Material and methodsMaterial included information posted on the Internet forum established at http://medyczka.pl/. The method employed was a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the content. The method was based on qualitative assessment of the first post in each thread presented on the rheumatologic subforum, by assigning keywords, subjectively determined by the researcher, to such a post. For each keyword a specific definition was established, determining a situation in which a given keyword was used.ResultsThe quantitative analysis qualified rheumatology in the last place in terms of Internet users’ activity compared to other branches of medicine. The qualitative assessment of the rheumatologic forum indicated that the three most common keywords were joint pain (32), joints swelling (13), and schoolage (13). The three most common intentional keywords (arranged in order of their decreasing number) were diagnosis based on symptoms (29), interpretation of the laboratory test results (9), and how to deal with symptoms (8).ConclusionsThe analysis leads to the conclusion that the rheumatologic subforum, along with other subforums listed above, presents a critically low level of discussion. There is a large disproportion between the number of active and passive forum users, suggesting that numerous individuals search the forum for presented information. Based on the qualitative analysis of the information stocks of the rheumatologic subforum, it was established that most of the questions posted concerned young individuals, who complained of joint pain and swelling, and asked for a possible diagnosis based on the presented symptomatology, interpretation of the laboratory test results and alleviation of disease symptoms.
Introduction: This study examined the emotional impact that parents experience when confronted with an increased genetic risk of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in their child. Population-based screening of neonates for genetic risk of chronic disease carries the risk of increased emotional burden for parents.Methods: Information was collected using a well-being questionnaire for parents of infants identified as having an increased risk for T1D in a multinational research study. Parents were asked to complete this questionnaire after they were told their child had an increased risk for T1D (Freder1k-study) and at several time points during an intervention study (POInT-study), where oral insulin was administered daily.Results: Data were collected from 2595 parents of 1371 children across five countries. Panic-related anxiety symptoms were reported by only 4.9% after hearing about their child having an increased risk. Symptoms of depression were limited to 19.4%
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