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Chronic wound infection is one of the factors that hinder or prevent its healing. The incidence of infection may vary depending on the type of wound. It is estimated that clinically significant infection in diabetic foot syndrome occurs in up to 30% of patients. Accurate diagnosis of infection features and proper microbiological tests are crucial for introducing of appropriate local and often systemic treatment. The aim of the study was a comparative analysis of the microbiota found in infected chronic wounds in patients from Poland, consulted on an outpatient basis at a wound care center in 2013–2021. The indication for microbiology culture tests was the detection of local signs of infection, and sampling was preceded by appropriate wound debridement. The standard culture technique was a deep-tissue biopsy. Material for the study was collected from 1,199 patients. Overall, 3,917 results of microbiological tests were subjected to retrospective analysis. The paper presents the results in the form of the number of cultured microorganisms and their relative incidence as percentages, considering the division into the types of wounds from which the material was obtained. The most frequently isolated microorganisms in the analyzed group were Staphylococcus aureus (14.3% of this group were MRSA – methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and Enterococcus faecalis (2.4% of this group were VRE – vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus). Further analysis of such an extensive database, especially regarding drug susceptibility of isolated microorganisms, seems crucial to elaborate new recommendations for empirical antibacterial treatment of infected chronic wounds.

Introduction The intersection of non-heterosexuality, gender and disability became a prolific field of research among both queer, crip and disability studies scholars, though focusing mainly on Western regions. The article discusses how women narrate their everyday intimate and care-related experiences situated in ableist and heteronormative regimes of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The aim of this article is to scrutinise the care regimes as experienced, navigated and reported by non-heterosexual women with disabilities in Poland, a country characterized by institutionalisation, lack of individualised disability support, and state homophobia. Methods The study is based on qualitative methods, namely semi-structured, in-depth interviews. We conducted interviews with 11 non-heterosexual disabled women living in Poland. The sampling was based on three criteria: gender, self-identification as a disabled person, and experience with being in a same-sex relationship (8 out of 11 participants were in a homosexual relationship during the time of the interview). All eleven participants identified as non-heterosexual women (most as lesbians, one as bisexual and one as pansexual) and had a congenital physical disability (including cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy). None of the interviewees had an intellectual disability. Results By tackling care regimes, our analysis explores women’s experiences in the context of discursive confusions resulting from being at the intersection of often-contradictory local narrations on gender, disability, and sexuality. We identified three intertwined processes to understand and explore how care regimes work in Poland: (1) the separateness between queer and disabled policies and discourses, (2) the co-opting/obscuring of homosexual relations between women by category of care, (3) familiarisation of care and its consequences for non-heterosexuality. Policy Implication We suggest that social support systems must better address the needs of non-heterosexual women with disabilities which are profoundly impacted by structural, political and cultural constraints and possibilities.

There is little data on the access of women with disabilities to gynaecological services in Central and Eastern Europe, where the shaping of public policies towards disability has been dominated by...

The main aim of the study was to identify the image of gender equality in Polish primary school textbooks. A thematic analysis of textbook content with elements of constant comparison method was carried out based on the six domains of the Gender Equality Index: work, money, knowledge, time power, and health. A total of 56 textbooks (32 Polish language textbooks and workbooks and 24 mathematics textbooks and workbooks) for primary school grades seven and eight were analysed. The content of the analysed textbooks seems to reflect the findings of the Gender Equality Index (GEI) regarding the Polish social reality and points to large gender polarisation and gender inequalities, in favour of men. The results are discussed based on theories of cultural understanding of gender and gender roles, as well as similar findings from other educational content studies.

This article analyses the representation of femininity in school textbooks in search of elements that discourage girls from taking up scientific educational paths. Quantitative content analysis and elements of the constant comparison method were used to examine the content of 75 Polish textbooks. Significant differences were identified in the number of male and female characters, their ages, financial resources, occupations, family roles and mental characteristics. Interestingly, the authors of the analysed textbooks are mostly women, which seems to indicate a manifestation of self-discrimination. These results indicate the existence of mechanisms discouraging females from a scientific career and are discussed in light of Hofstede’s masculinity-femininity theory.

The authors describe the key challenges faced by teachers in integrated and inclusive classrooms: utilizing different lesson models in co-teaching, finding ways of effective cooperation between general and special education teachers, carrying out multispecialist assessments, drawing up individual education and therapeutic programmes, fostering the development of the students’ social skills and building healthy relations between students. The book offers practical tips for teachers based on newest research on inclusive education.

The author analyses how intellectual disability and social and system conditions related to it influence decisions, reproductive rights and ways of experiencing motherhood. She asks questions about motherhood models of intellectually disabled women, the role of informal social support in parenthood and the ways of building, negotiating and crossing the norms of care practices of such women. She verifies the assumptions of participatory research, attempts to recognize the scope and possibilities of engaging women with intellectual disability in the research process.

10.24917/20837275.10.1.13Spoleczny model niepelnosprawności, warunek podmiotowego traktowania uczestnikow badan spolecznych i zalozenie dostepności badanych osob do procesu badawczego, wynikające z Konwencji o prawach osob niepelnosprawnych, stawiają badaczy przed koniecznością po­szukiwania nowych strategii prowadzenia badan, ktore docierają do świata znaczen osob ba­danych. Naprzeciw tym wyzwaniom wychodzi model badan partycypacyjnych, ktory wydaje sie rowniez wlaściwy dla uchwycenia intersekcjonalności kategorii plci i niepelnosprawności. Participation research as the answer to the assumptions of the social model of disability? The social model of disability, the requirement for the subjective treatment of participants in social research and the availability of research subjects to the research process, resulting from the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, put researchers before the need to seek new research strategies that grasp the world of meanings of the respondents. The model of participatory research, which seems also appropriate for capturing the intersectionality of the gender and disability, seems to meet these challenges.

When thinking, we use very often natural concepts – the building blocks of our common-sense knowledge. Consequently, creativity may depend on the characteristics of a person’s natural concepts. Natural concepts are composed from a representation of a “prototype” exemplar and a space of accepted dissimilarities from it, and they have no clear boundaries. They enable people to differentiate objects according to the degree of their “typicality” and to reject or include them – automatically or deliberatively – as exemplars of a given concept. Natural concepts differ in their plasticity, that is – in the amount of accepted dissimilarities from the prototypic characteristics. It may be assumed that higher plasticity within a given life domain facilitates creative thinking in this domain. In several studies we have reinforced experimentally the plasticity of concepts within a given domain and compared the effects with placebo. The results show the facilitating role of induced concepts’ plasticity in different aspects of creative thinking and in openness to novel experiences. In the chapter, we will present the theory and data as well as practical conclusions related to education and therapeutic work, key contexts of social creativity.

In this qualitative study, I offer a feminist reflection on motherhood from the perspectives of 25 women with various types of physical and sensory disabilities. Disability was treated not only as an individual experience but also as a social construct. I conducted 25 non-standardised narrative interviews with women with various types of physical disabilities. Using grounded theory method, with a particular emphasis on symbolic interactionism, I identified three important themes from the non-standardised narrative interviews: the effects of insufficient health care on pregnant women, the lack of acceptance and support for mothers, and a welfare system inadequate to the needs of mothers. These themes affect the way Polish women with disabilities experience motherhood. Findings highlight the different ways that mothers with disabilities challenge the prevailing normative categories of gender and disability and, in so doing, demythologise and delegitimise the traditional Polish model of motherhood. While this study points to needed reforms in Poland to support women with disabilities, it also reveals a model of motherhood based on interdependence and mutual care. The women with disabilities in this study identify new possibilities for all families.

Kreatywnośc osob z niepelnosprawnością intelektualną - proba syntezy teoretycznej i empirycznej

Background Little is known about the experience of growing up with a mother with intellectual disability. The aim of this study was to explore this experience from the perspective of adult children. Method In-depth interviews with 23 adult children brought up by mothers with moderate-to-severe intellectual disability. The interview data were analysed using grounded theory methods. Results The childhood experiences of the interviewees and the role their mothers played in their upbringing varied, depending in part on the involvement of extended family. It was the stigma of maternal intellectual disability, rather than their mother's functional limitations, that posed the greatest challenge. Conclusion Interviewees characterized their mothers and childhoods as different, yet ordinary. Understanding the social context, including but not limited to the availability of informal support, is critical to understanding the experience of children growing up with mothers with intellectual disability.