The effect of education on the knowledge of the selected legal acts used in nursing

Introduction. The work on defining the range of nurses’ independence, the possibility of raising their professional qualifications and their
professional responsibility resulted in numerous legislative acts.

Aim of the study. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge of medical law demonstrated by working nurses and to find out how education affects the level of their knowledge.

Material and methods. The study involved 366 hospital nurses in chosen Polish towns. The study was based on a diagnostic survey using the author’s questionnaire.

Results. The average age of respondents was 36 years and the average job seniority — 14 years. The most numerous group (46.2%) consisted
of nurses with secondary education, 30% of respondents were bachelors and 23.8% masters of nursing. It was found that nurses with a bachelor’s degree had much better scores in the survey than those with secondary or master education. Legal acts were best known by
nurses with a bachelor’s degree. The mean score that they achieved was 27.0 ± 5.1 points (p < 0.05). The mean scores obtained by nursing
staff with secondary and master education were significantly lower, namely and was equal 25.5 points.

Conclusions. 1. Providing updated information on legal issues during nursing studies is the best way to prepare nurses for using legal acts
consciously in the future. 2. Long distance from graduating studies may be the reason of little knowledge of law regulations among nurses.
3. It is necessary that nurses continuously update their knowledge of nursing through participation in various forms of education.