Educação permanente em saúde em tempos de pandemia: contribuição de fisioterapeutas intensivistas de uma maternidade pública de alto risco

Abstract

Introduction: this master’s thesis brings in its composition article and educational product that had its origin in the results obtained from the research entitled: "Continuing education in health in times of pandemic: contributions of intensivist physiotherapists of a public high-risk maternity hospital". Since the first months of 2020, when the first cases of COVID-19 (disease caused by the SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus) appeared and with the pandemic advancing in Brazil, the health system was strained and brought to near exhaustion, bringing challenges that, at first sight, were practically insurmountable. During this period in professional practice, permanent health education (PHE) contributed to mitigate this situation and to help in the confrontation with the new coronavirus, establishing itself as a powerful strategy in the mobilization of the entire multi professional team. Still in the current moment, health institutions had to reorganize and direct their PHE actions to prepare their employees, including intensive care physiotherapists. Thus, PHE can train such professionals to understand the physiopathology of the virus and to fight the pandemic of COVID-19, in order to provide qualified care to pregnant and postpartum women and newborns in the maternity school studied. The motivation for this study was based on the author's experience as a frontline professional in fighting the pandemic, on the perception of the change in the routine of the maternity ward and of the entire team, and on the applicability of PHE during this troubled period. Objective: to analyze the possible contributions of intensive care physiotherapists in the development of Permanent Health Education actions in a Maternity School during the covid-19 Pandemic. Method: the study is of the qualitative type, being a case study, of the descriptive and exploratory type. A focus group was conducted with 5 participants and the data analyzed using the method suggested by Malheiros (2011). Results: it was observed that the PHE showed efficacy and had importance in fighting the pandemic in the mentioned maternity, both in aspects of improvement and application of protocols, improvement in assistance and clinical practice, as well as in the safety of professionals and in the care of patients with COVID, resulting in positive influence on the emotional aspect of the team of physiotherapists. These gains were directly related to the PHE moments performed in the maternity ward with the presence of the multi professional team. Final considerations: this master’s thesis brings the relevance of the role of the institution, through Permanent Health Education, in a troubled scenario due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was verified that the pandemic triggered several issues for the Intensive Care Physiotherapists, such as: apprehension, anxiety, stress and exhaustion by the high workload at the peak moments of the pandemic. All these issues raised above were apprehended in the PHE moments and analyzed in this master’s thesis, with the purpose of bringing a collaboration on the PHE as a tool to help fight the pandemic. And finally, the contributions that the intensive care physiotherapists presented were the basis for the educational product that aims to aggregate PHE in institutional practice.