The aim of this study is to characterize the cognitive aspect of the semantic space of hope in patients in the terminal stage of cancer. This was confirmed in the research on hope by C. R. Snyder and B. Schrank. Hope is of great importance in all the great world religions and belief systems, both as regards a personal God or impersonal deities. Hoping is a human capacity with varying affective, cognitive and behavioral dimensions. Psychological, pedagogical (particularly in the framework of special needs pedagogy and thanatological pedagogy) and theological reflection on hope can provide support for dying people. In order to conduct the research, the semantic differential research method was selected. The research technique employed was a therapeutic conversation, and the research tool was the B.L. Block’s DSN-3 test. The DSN-3 test allows one to assess hope in the semantic space in three aspects: cognitive, emotional and functional. For the purposes of this study, only the cognitive aspect was taken into account. The study was begun on 1 April 2010 and ended in the last days of December 2020. It included 110 male patients in the terminal stage of cancer. The youngest respondent was 19 years old and the oldest was 94 years old. The surveyed men most often perceived hope in the semantic space in the cognitive aspect as more true, wise, meaningful and real than false, stupid, meaningless and deceptive. Their attitude to hope was, therefore, more affirmative than negative. The research did not reveal the importance of the age of the respondents on the degree of affirmation/negation of hope in the cognitive aspect in the semantic space; however, men in the period of late maturity and professional activity expressed the lowest level of the affirmation of hope. It is worthwhile to conduct further research concerning hope in other aspects (especially emotional and functional) in the semantic space in order to use the obtained results to consider what to take into account when providing patients in the terminal stage of cancer with better personalized holistic care than before.

Brain death has been one of the most controversial issues in the medical and bioethical debate globally for more than fifty years. There is no unanimous acceptance of the understanding of brain death, and a single set of neurological criteria for the determination of human death that is accepted worldwide has yet to be established. Physicians from different specialisations understand brain death differently. Therefore, research is needed to understand and typologically classify their points of views as regards brain death. In Poland, this research is particularly important, as the views of anaesthesiologists, neurologists and transplantologists, who fully accept and support brain death as being synonymous with biological human death, have dominated the scholarly debate on this issue. This study presents the opinions of Polish physicians with various medical specialisations in relation to brain death. Free-form interviews with 28 doctors were conducted. Participants expressed their personal views on brain death, while exhibiting at the same time various emotions. We discuss our findings in relation to the existing framework of knowledge and debate concerning brain death and the Polish legal regulation in force when the interviews were carried out. Although participants had different beliefs with regard to brain death, the research team managed to classify their statements and opinions into five attitudes, taking into account what for them were the most important, namely: the escapist–protective attitude, the scientistic–medical attitude, the accepting–critical attitude, the ignorant–agnostic attitude, and the ambiguous attitude.

Relacja lekarz -dziecko w ocenie rodziców dzieci leczonych na oddzia³ach onkohematologii dzieciêcej Artyku³ prezentuje wyniki badañ zwi¹zane z opiniami rodziców na temat relacji nawi¹zywanych przez lekarzy prowadz¹cych z pacjentami chorymi na nowotwory. Materia³ badawczy zebrano przy wykorzystaniu metody sonda¿u diagnostycznego. Jako narzêdzia u¿yto kwestionariusza skonstruowanego na wzór narzêdzia opracowanego przez Aleksandrê Barczak i Sylwiê Ko³tan. Miejscem badañ by³y trzy kliniki onkohematologii dzieciêcej w Polsce nale¿¹ce do Polskiej Pediatrycznej Grupy ds. Leczenia Bia³aczek i Ch³oniaków. Analiza zgromadzonego materia³u badawczego wskazuje, i¿ relacja lekarz -dziecko chore na nowotwór zosta³a przez rodziców oceniona pozytywnie. Obserwacja w trakcie prowadzonych wczeoeniej badañ oraz rozmowy z rodzicami pacjentów onkologicznych wskazuj¹ na przyjazny, a w niektórych przypadkach nawet rodzinny klimat oddzia³ów onkohematologii dzieciêcej. S³owa klucze: choroba nowotworowa, relacja lekarz -pacjent, komunikacja Physician -child relationship as perceived by parents of children treated at Departments of Paediatric Oncology and Haematology This paper presents the results of research devoted to parents' opinions concerning the relationship established between attending physicians and patients treated due to cancer. The analyzed research material was collected with the use of a diagnostic survey. The survey was carried out using a questionnaire modelled on the tool designed by Aleksandra Barczak and Sylwia Ko³tan. The study was conducted in three Clinics of Paediatric Oncology and Haematology in Poland that are supervised by the Polish Paediatric Leukaemia and Lymphoma Study Group. The analysis of the collected research material indicates that parents assess the physician -cancer patient relationship positively. Observations made during earlier studies and interviews with parents of oncology patients point to a friendly, and in some cases even familial setting of Departments of Paediatric Oncology and Haematology.

Despite the legal classification of cerebral death as the actual death of a human being and the continuous clarification of neurological criteria, the subject of death, particularly, when exactly it occurs, has been the subject of debate not only in the medical environment but also in other scientific communities for over sixty years. This issue is also present in social discourse. In Poland, as well as in other countries, the concepts of “death” and “cerebral death” have a legal basis. Considerations devoted to death are also important for tanatopedagogics, which focuses primarily on mortality. Indeed, the quality of relationships with other people depends to a large extent on the awareness of death. The study involved 113 pre-specialist physicians employed in various medical centers in Poland. An original questionnaire was used to study the understanding of human death in the light of legal and medical acts that came into force between 2007 and 2019. The study showed that only 7.08% of pre-specialist physicians could fully and correctly identify the basis for declaring a patient dead after diagnosing the irreversible cessation of brain function, and only 33.63% of all respondents understood death in accordance with legal acts currently in force in Poland. Moreover, nearly half of the study participants (47.79%) indicated that irreversible loss of consciousness is not adequate grounds for determining a patient’s death, while 56.64% felt that cerebral death is equal to the biological death of a human being. Women were significantly more likely to understand the concept of death (p = 0.028) as defined by current documents and to perceive the irreversible loss of consciousness as an insufficient basis for determining a patient’s death (p = 0.040) and also to correctly indicate on what basis cerebral death is identified with human death (p = 0.003), as expressed by current legal regulations in Poland.

This theoretical and research paper focuses on the physician-patient relationship, and more specifically on the meanings ascribed to the notion of "patient". Authors of relevant literature indicate that particular models of the physician-patient relationship depend on the understanding of the notion of "patient" as well as on the understanding of two basic terms in medicine: health and illness. This assumption was the starting point for the presented analyses.Research was conducted within an interpretative paradigm framework. The study group consisted of physicians with different levels of experience and lengths of professional employment, as well as of various specializations. An analysis of collected data allowed for the identification of three categories of the notion of "patient": personal, subjective-objective and objective.