Polish Journal of Public Health

Original Article, Pol J Public Health, Vol. 132 (2022): 64-66

Aleksandra Piąta¹, Ka mila Kocańda¹, Olga Adamczyk-Gruszka^1,2

¹ Collegium Medicum, Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, Poland
² Department of Gynecology and Obstretics, Provincial Integrated Hospital in Kielce, Poland

10.2478/pjph-2022-0013

© 2022  Medical University of Lublin. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonComercial-No Derivs licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/)

Abstract

Despite the development of medicine, acts of violence against health care professionals, are a current, frequent and widespread phenomenon. In Poland, many health care staff are entitled by law to legal protection provided for public officials. Therefore, criminal offenses against them are more severely punished. In the years 2018-2019, research was carried out on acts of aggression that had been experienced by a group of 249 health care staff in health care facilities in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. Just slightly more than 7.5% of the respondents indicated that they had not experienced aggression, which only confirms the scale of the problem. Therefore, managers of health care facilities should use all possible means to limit the extent of attacks and prevent their possible consequences.

Keywords: aggressive patient, the phenomenon of aggression in a health care facility, the rights of health care staff, knowledge of the rights of health care staff.