Trabalho e saúde mental : os trabalhadores da enfermagem nas Unidades de Terapia Intensiva (UTIS) em tempos de pandemia.

Abstract

This master's dissertation in Regional Development presents the experiences of nursing professionals, in the period of the pandemic, caused by Covid-19 and their relationships with work and mental health. For this reason, the aim was to understand the working conditions of ICU Covid-19 nurses in two regional hospitals and the effects on their mental health. The methodology chosen for the study was phenomenology, which is a qualitative study of an exploratory and descriptive nature, with intentional non-probabilistic sampling. A total of 11 nursing professionals were interviewed, including technicians and nurses, workers from two regional hospitals in the Vales Macroregion in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, located in the municipalities of Santa Cruz do Sul and Lajeado. Data collection took place inside the hospitals, in the ICU environment and to facilitate the interviews, a script of questions was used to guide the content worked. The results of this research brought to light the difficult moments experienced by these workers, when faced with a growing and significant number of deaths, crowded hospitals, work overload, fear, insecurity. Technical knowledge was put to the test when facing a little-known disease. The increase in anxiety levels was a significant factor raised by the researcher during the interviews, in addition to the reports about the difficult time they went through during the most critical periods of the pandemic, in which the number of cases was significantly greater than the number of beds. The importance of reference hospitals in this study was also emphasized, as they expanded the number of ICU vacancies to try to cope with such demand. To conclude, some reflections were made on what, for such professionals, will be taken as experiences, experiences, learning, outside and inside the institution. The pandemic caused by Covid-19 led nursing professionals to resignify.