The aim of this study is to examine how professionals from Latin America working in Poland negotiate their cultural identities and make sense of their multiculturalism within organizational settings. Ten bicultural or multicultural individuals participated in in-depth interviews and created Cultural Identity Circles. Drawing on the frameworks of Bicultural Identity Integration and cultural identity styles, the findings indicate that across the sample, harmonious, blended, and hybridized identity styles were most prevalent among participants, with some individuals demonstrating multiple styles simultaneously. Alternating was less common, appearing mainly through contextual language switching. Moreover, within organizational contexts, multiculturalism was largely perceived as an asset. Participants drew on multilingualism, cultural bridging, and relational warmth rooted in Latin American values as deliberate strategies for fostering inclusion, mediating between teams, and navigating diverse workplace norms. However, these advantages were accompanied by costs, including linguistic barriers, being subject to stereotyping, and feelings of otherness. This study contributes to the field by providing phenomenologically grounded insights into Latin American professionals in Poland, an underexplored group in a Central and Eastern European context, and by demonstrating the value of cultural identity mapping as an elicitation tool for uncovering complex identity negotiations of bi- and multicultural individuals. The article calls for more dynamic approaches to multiculturalism, grounded in qualitative inquiry and close attention to lived experiences.
Background
Despite advances in HIV care, late diagnosis remains a major public health challenge in Europe, with nearly half of HIV diagnoses in the EU/EEA occurring at a late stage. In Poland, a substantial proportion of people living with HIV remain undiagnosed. Indicator condition–guided testing has been proposed as an effective strategy to reduce missed portunities for earlier diagnosis.
Methods
A prospective cohort study was conducted at the Emergency Department of the Hospital for Infectious Diseases in Warsaw, Poland, between May 2015 and March 2018, as part of the European OptTEST project. HIV DUO testing was offered to patients aged 18–65 years presenting with mononucleosis-like illness (MONO) or community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We evaluated the prevalence of HIV infection and assessed linkage to HIV care among those testing positive. Confirmatory testing, CD4 cell counts at diagnosis, and linkage-to-care outcomes were collected.
Results
Among 885 patients with indicator conditions (MONO: 794; CAP: 91), 636 (71.9%) accepted HIV testing. Twenty-two patients (3.5%) were confirmed HIV-positive. HIV prevalence was 2.6% among patients with MONO and 11.1% among those with CAP. Most HIV-positive patients were male (90.9%), with 59% identifying as men who have sex with men or bisexual. The median age was 32.5 years. The median CD4 cell count at diagnosis was 341 cells/μL overall and was lower in patients presenting with CAP than MONO (61 vs. 366.5 cells/μL). All patients diagnosed with HIV were linked to care, and 95.5% initiated antiretroviral therapy, with a median time to treatment of 8 days.
Conclusions
HIV seroprevalence among patients presenting with MONO or CAP was higher than the national average, particularly among those with CAP. These findings support routine indicator condition–guided HIV testing in Emergency Departments to improve early HIV diagnosis and timely linkage to care.
Egocentrism plays a central role in moral cognition, as individuals interpret the social world from a default, self-centered perspective. This often leads people to view their moral evaluations as objective and justified, even when those judgments are influenced by self-interest or interpersonal preferences. In this chapter, I review research that identifies two key egocentric tendencies in moral judgment, which are evident in both children and adults. First, when interests are involved, individuals are more likely to evaluate unethical or unjust actions as morally acceptable. Second, people tend to perceive those they like as more moral than those they dislike, indicating that liking can bias moral evaluation. These patterns persist even when individuals attempt to reason impartially. Rather than being irrational errors, such tendencies may serve adaptive social functions by helping individuals maintain relationships, form alliances, and make strategic moral decisions. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for explaining everyday moral reasoning and behavior.
The aim of the paper is to analyse the legal regulations regarding continuing professional development in the light of the Act of 17th August 2023 on the Selected Healthcare Professions. Above issue is of the essence in practice. Continuing professional development is integrally related to the proper pursuit of the health profession, thus impacts of legal status of the patient. The author, using the legal-dogmatic method, points out and characterizes the form of continuing professional development (postgraduate education and professional development). Subsequently, the issues of cost and method of verification of continuing professional development were presented. The special rights that have a health professional perform a profession based on a labor employment relationship were also included. The regulation regarding continuing professional development is essential to ensure proper performance of professional activities and thus the safety of the patient.
