Report
Meeting of the Heads of Medical Psychology Chairs and Units at the Medical University of Warsaw

A working meeting of the Medical Psychology Chairs and Units from Polish medical universities took place at the Medical Psychology Unit (MPU), Medical University of Warsaw (MUW), on 8 May 2012. The meeting was devoted to training in psychology at medical universities within the context of present and future activities.

One of the main reasons for organizing this meeting was the heated media debate at the turn of 2012 on physicians’ inability to talk to patients and their families. The initiative evoked considerable interest from Professor Janusz Kleinrok, Director of the Department of Science and Higher Education at the Ministry of Health. One of the reasons for this concern was the large number of patient complaints addressed to the Patients’ Ombudsman and the Physicians’ Councils. Media coverage was very good.

Toward the close of 2011 Mr Bartosz Arłukowicz, the Minister of Health, established a Commission for the Humanization of Medicine. One of the objectives of this commission is to improve the quality of communication. Professor Tomasz Pasierski MD and Professor Krzysztof Owczarek, both from the Warsaw University of Medicine, were invited to participate in this collegial body. They put forward the proposal to the Ministry of Health to introduce a new subject for medical students, “Doctor-Patient Relations”.

The meeting at the MPU MUW was convened to discuss this valuable initiative and to present the contents of the syllabuses taught at the Unit. Professor Krzysztof Owczarek, Head of the Medical Psychology Unit, Medical University of Warsaw, chaired the discussions. First on the agenda was a detailed presentation of the motion of the Commission for the Humanization of Medicine at the Ministry of Health to apply psychological knowledge to improve physicians’ relations with patients and their families. Second on the agenda was a communication concerning the activity of the Medical Psychology Unit with respect to the teaching of medical psychology to medical departments, with special emphasis on various aspects of doctor-patient relations and adequate communication. These topics were presented by Dorota Włodarczyk MD and Magdalena Łazarkiewicz MA, postdoctoral fellow and assistant respectively at the MPU MUW.

Their presentation was about how contemporary psychological knowledge and novel teaching methods are currently applied at our unit to increase physician-patient relation competences and...


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