Abstrakt: The date of creation of professional nursing is assumed as 1860, when Florence Nightingale established first nursing school in London. From that time similar schools were established all over the world. The aim of the study is to present the development of professional nursing in Poland. The first nursing school with Polish instruction language was created in Krakow in 1911 on the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Polish Association of Professional Nurses was established in 1925, it was the first nursing organization that operated until World War II, and which was reactivated in 1957 as the Polish Nursing Society. In 1969, a 3-year nursing study was set up at the Medical Academy in Lublin, where the first Nursing Department in Poland was established. It was the beginning of the education of Polish nurses at the higher education level. An important step in the development of the profession was the creation of a new law on the profession, since the existing one from 1935 ceased to be sufficient in the changed reality. On July 1st, 1996, the Act on the profession of nurse and midwife entered into force, which initiated a great transformation of professional nursing. Since 2004, all Polish nurses have been educated at the undergraduate level. Thanks to the new regulations, Polish nurses acquire new competences and the profession becomes more and more attractive. Currently, the biggest problems of nursing in Poland are staff ageing and a shortage of nursing staff.

Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine Medical Faculty of the University of Rzeszow Polsko

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