Representações sociais e experiências de cuidado de saúde aos pacientes com COVID-19 em unidade de terapia intensiva entre profissionais de saúde

Abstract

The general objective of this study was to analyze the social representations and experiences of healthcare for patients with COVID-19, experienced by healthcare professionals working in the ICU. This is a descriptive field research, with a qualitative approach, based on the Theory of Social Representations, using the procedural approach. The study was developed in an ICU, located in a large reference University Hospital, located in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. At the time, the ICU consisted of 10 beds that served patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Twenty-three healthcare professionals from different professional backgrounds who provided healthcare to people with COVID-19 in the ICU participated in the study, by invitation from among the total number of professionals working in the unit chosen for the study and who met the inclusion criteria. The following inclusion criteria were taken into account for the selection of participants: people aged 18 to 75, who worked in the ICU during the pandemic. The collection took place through semi-structured interviews and was analyzed using the IRAMUTEQ software.The analysis resulted in 5 classes: Experience of home self-care and family care; Experience of vaccination against COVID-19 and the political context; Experience of difficulties for care and self-care in the ICU; Experience and daily routine of professional care in the ICU; Experience of relational and affective care in the ICU. The importance of understanding the perceptions and lived experiences of care and self-care and the difficulties faced by health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic became evident. Understanding the care experience experienced by health professionals can contribute to safer health care practices for both professionals and patients, especially in contexts of difficulties experienced by health services, by identifying the problems faced. Additionally, observing the importance of relational care in critical situations can provide greater focus on this type of care, which is rarely mentioned in everyday care situations.It is believed that this dissertation may contribute to the reflection on the complexity of the experiences of health care for patients, experienced by health professionals working in ICUs, in the context of a health crisis such as the one observed. These experiences speak of the past, but also of a probable future of a new pandemic with global repercussions. The contributions of this work also lie in the improvement of care practices in public health and nursing, through the continuing education of nurses and other professionals focused on care, and with SUS users.