title: Strengthening emergency medicine in Poland: a training and partnership model.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To report a qualitative evaluation of the Partnerships in Health Care/EMS Project between Poland and the United States. The goal of the partnership was to strengthen the emergency medical services (EMS) system in three Polish cities, Krakow, Bialystok, and Lodz.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Polish participants were interviewed in Poland approximately eight months after a U.S.-based training program. They were asked to evaluate the effectiveness of the partnership project and discuss their experiences incorporating U.S. emergency medicine (EM) knowledge and technology in the Polish EMS system.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The Polish physicians identified three major factors that had the greatest impact on the implementation of U.S. EM knowledge in Poland. These factors were the substantive differences between Polish and U.S. EM knowledge and technology, staffing differences in Polish and U.S. ambulances, and the differing role the EMS system plays in the delivery of primary care in the two countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Polish physicians succeeded in training EM providers in the three cities, thus strengthening clinical skills of EMS providers. They also were able to adapt the principles of U.S. EM that they had learned to fit the specific circumstances that characterize Polish emergency care. As in the United States, the health care system in Poland is inseparable from the social, political, and economic realities of the nation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Community Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 53226, USA. mwolff@mcw.edu
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Pirrallo
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Hargarten
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D011044:Poland; D016730:Program Development; D014481:United States