Our good is the public good – reframing the communication of professional groups. Anatomy of the resident doctors’ protests in Poland

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the protests of resident doctors in Poland, with a particular focus on their hunger protest in October 2017. We use a theoretical framework of three types of groups – epistemic communities, communities of practice and interest groups – to show their strategies used for gaining influence upon healthcare. We show the dynamics of the protest, with a shift from self-centred to public-oriented demands. We present how a professional group managed to shape the public discourse on healthcare, introducing their key demands, which became not only media catchphrases, but also the axis of the media discourse on any future healthcare reforms. We also reconstruct how the resident doctors defined and identified themselves as an epistemic community, with an elaborate and well-planned strategy employed to gain public visibility, media attention and public support.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthcare protests
• medical professionals’ protests
• doctors’ protests
• resident doctors
• healthcare system
• power relations in healthcare

Acknowledgments

This work is a part of a wider research project “Centre and borderlands—struggle for domination in the field of healthcare in Poland”. Funding for project number 2016/21/D/HS6/02421 (2017–2020) was provided by the National Science Centre in Poland (NCN).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This may be attributed to the lack of a systematic medical education policy and medical staff management, blocking of some specialization paths, and waves of emigration, especially after Poland’s 2004 EU accession.

2. http://prawo.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU20170002434/O/D20172434.pdf.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for project number 2016/21/D/HS6/02421 (2017–2020) was provided by the National Science Centre in Poland (NCN).

Notes on contributors

Paulina Polak

Paulina Polak is assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her main research focus is in healthcare analysis, including discourse on health-related problems, patients’ rights, the dynamics of protests in healthcare and vaccine hesitancy.

Aleksandra Wagner

Aleksandra Wagner, is a professor at Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University. She is instigator and founder of the Dialogue for Policy research group. She specialises in discursive analyses of public policies, designing participatory processes and effective moderation of group discussions, including in conflict situations.

Maria Świątkiewicz-Mośny

Maria Świątkiewicz-Mośny is professor at Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. She graduated in sociology and psychology. Author of two monographs (Spoiled identity and Construction of identity in the globalization era), and several dozen articles. Her main scientific interests are communication about health and healthcare and discourse about energy issue.