Health leave, pay scale. Nurses met with the Minister of Health.

• The Minister of Health has launched a series of meetings with medical professions' self-governments
• The first meeting was held with the Supreme Chamber of Nurses and Midwives
• "The minister knows the healthcare environment and system very well. I think she was also able to accurately assess the problems we face," said Mariola Łodzińska, president of the National Council for the Protection of Human Rights and Public Health, summing up the meeting.

Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda has launched a series of meetings with healthcare professional self-governments. The first meeting was held with the Supreme Chamber of Nurses and Midwives and focused on current challenges and the community's demands, the ministry announced.

NIPiP informed that the following issues were discussed during the meeting:

• work on amending the Act on the professions of nurse and midwife,
• advanced nursing practice (APN) and the continuation of activities initiated during Izabela Leszczyna's term of office,
• restoration of the Department of Nurses and Midwives,
• leave for health reasons,
• employment standards,
• the Minimum Wage Act (so-called pay scales).

The meeting was attended by the president of the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives, Mariola Łodzińska , vice-president of the National Council of Nurses and Midwives, Ewa Molka , and secretary of the National Council of Nurses and Midwives, Kamilla Gólcz.

The president of the nurses' self-government sums up the meeting

- The minister is a person who knows the environment very well, she worked in this environment, she knows the health care system, and I think that she was also able to accurately assess the problems we face as a professional group of nurses and midwives - said Mariola Łodzińska, summing up the meeting.

- We submitted demands that are being pushed forward by the professional community of nurses and midwives, we tried to present and ask about the details of the work on the amendment to the Act on the professions of nurses and midwives - she added.

As Łodzińska reported, the minister declared that work would continue on defining areas of advanced nursing practice .

Local government representatives also inquired about the possibility of restoring the Department of Nursing and Midwifery within the Ministry of Health, but neither a clear affirmative nor a negative response was given. "We understand this, as the Minister has only been in office for a short time, and therefore must review and understand the current situation regarding the Ministry of Health's staff," emphasized the president of the National Nurses and Midwives Council.

They also discussed considering and possibly returning to work on health leave, which had been started with the previous minister, Izabela Leszczyna.

- We also drew attention to the law on the minimum wage and the changes expected by our professional community, which are also being pushed by the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives - added Łodzińska.

"We hope that this is the first and not the last meeting, and that as representatives of the largest group among medical professions, we will become more frequent guests at 15 Miodowa Street. Today's meeting was more of an introductory meeting, so that we could verify our expectations, the possibility of cooperation, and the principles of this cooperation," she concluded.

Demands of nurses and midwives

The local government has published the full text of the demands that the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives submitted to the Minister of Health.

1. Continuation of work on the amendment to the Act on the professions of nurse and midwife and the self-government of nurses and midwives.
2. Continuation of the work of the Team to identify areas, including professional activities, in which advanced practice by nurses can be implemented.
3. Employment standards – taking legislative action to introduce employment rates for nurses providing health services in the areas of: psychiatric care, long-term care, palliative care.
4. Restoration of the Department of Nurses and Midwives in the Ministry of Health.
5. Taking legislative action to amend the regulation of the Minister of Health on the list of active substances in medicines, foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses and medical devices prescribed by nurses and midwives , as well as the list of diagnostic tests for which nurses and midwives are entitled to issue referrals, which will allow nurses and midwives to independently provide health services in primary health care, hospice care and long-term home care.
6. Introducing legislative changes enabling nurses and midwives to use the competences they acquire in undergraduate and postgraduate education.
7. Accelerating work on amending the provisions on specific work factors in the Act on the method of determining the minimum basic salary of certain employees employed in healthcare entities , in particular regarding the remuneration of nurses and midwives, taking into account qualifications obtained in postgraduate education and professional experience.
8. Strengthening efforts to improve the quality of education in nursing and midwifery, including by defining additional staffing and infrastructure criteria for universities, as well as setting limits on places in the above-mentioned fields of study.
9. Appointment of National Consultants in the fields of nursing, in accordance with the list in the regulation on the list of fields of nursing and fields applicable in health care in which they have not been appointed yet: neonatal nursing, occupational health care.
10. Taking legislative action to amend the regulation on the method of conducting competitions for certain managerial positions in healthcare facilities and the Act on Medical Activity regarding the inclusion of additional nursing staff positions for which a competition should be held, as employers do not follow competition procedures and appoint deputy managers and nurses coordinating and supervising the work of other nurses without a competition process.
11. Maintaining the ability to contract healthcare services for nurses and midwives operating in individual and group practices. Continuing efforts to maintain the autonomy of nurses and midwives' professional practices within the healthcare system, primarily in primary care, long-term care, hospice care, and school medicine, by eliminating financial and technical barriers and enabling the use of EU funds and adequate pricing of services.
12. Implementation of solutions to improve the level of protection of medical personnel , including ex officio prosecution of all manifestations of aggression, creation of an aggression register, standardization of procedures for responding to violence, and penalization of disturbances of public order in medical facilities.
13. Introducing new preventive programmes designed for a given age group into the school nurse’s services, taking into account the developmental needs of young people, financial education and the introduction of a compulsory health education subject in schools.
14. Continuation of legislative activities aimed at introducing additional health leave for nurses and midwives.
15. Changes to the regulations on simplified methods of access to the profession of nurse and midwife, in which access to the profession is granted to persons whose diploma and training programme are not subject to prior verification of compliance with the minimum requirements in force in the European Union.

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