O processo de trabalho de enfermeiras no cuidado à criança na atenção básica no contexto da pandemia por Covid-19

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed transformations and impacts on population health care and work processes across the entire service network, including child care in primary care. Thus, we sought to analyze the work process of the nurse in child care in Primary Care in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a descriptive, analytical study with a qualitative approach, conducted in Maceió-Alagoas with primary care nurses who worked during the Covid-19 pandemic. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 professionals, from August to November 2022, after approval by the ethics committee. All were female, with an average age of 51 years, with time spent in Primary Care from 6 to 20 years; 14 with specialization and 1 with a master's degree. After exhaustive reading, the nuclei of meaning and elucidative categories about the Nursing Work Process were extracted, from the perspective of the dimensions to assist, research, teach, administer, and think politically, as themes. When analyzing the results presented, it was noticed that the practice of nursing in child care in this scenario focused on the dimensions of assisting and teaching. The professionals' work is still centered on the disease, which can lead to a limited view of the child, ignoring important aspects such as their development. In addition, the lack of basic resources for child care highlights the precariousness of the municipality's health system, which can affect the quality and comprehensiveness of the care provided to children. Despite the professionals' interest in training for child care, there is a lack of coordination on the part of management in promoting continuing education actions, which can affect the care provided to children. In addition, the lack of training of nursing technicians can lead to an overload of nurses' work, hampering the systematization of nursing care. Finally, it is noteworthy that the dimensions of managing, researching, and participating politically were little evidenced by the professionals in their work process with the child during the pandemic. This highlights the need to think of strategies to encourage nurses' participation in these dimensions, in order to promote a more critical and reflective practice, which takes into account not only the treatment of the disease, but also comprehensive child care and the improvement of the health system as a whole.