Public knowledge of palliative care and the functioning of hospices in Poland

Introduction
In line with the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO), palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life (QoL) of patients struggling with chronic disease that is not amenable to causal treatment. Guaranteed services in that field are provided in accordance with the Announcement of the Minister of Health of 28 March 2018.

Aim of the study
To determine the level of public knowledge of the basic aspects of palliative and hospice care in Poland. Material and methods: The study, carried out in 2020, involved 249 people. The material was collected using an online questionnaire. The research tool was the author’s questionnaire. Statistical calculations were made using STATISTICA 10 PL software.

Results
The level of knowledge about hospice care was slightly above average (M = 20.4, SD = 2.5). Most of the respondents were aware of the idea of the hospice (71.89%). The awareness of the presence of perinatal hospices in our country already had the highest quality of the group (42.97%). Fees for hospice care were expected by 28.51% of the respondents. There was a weak, positive, statistically significant correlation between the level of knowledge and the age of the respondents (Rs = 0.166, p = 0.0087). The variables most strongly associated with the level of knowledge were education (p = 0.0005) and medical profession (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions
The general level of public knowledge was slightly above average. Some areas require modification. The knowledge exhibited by the medical community was much higher than in the rest of the group. The nascent perinatal hospice movement in Poland requires intensified public education campaigns.