Estresse em trabalhadores da atenção primária em saúde no cenário da pandemia pela Covid-19: reflexões à luz da teoria de Betty Neuman

Abstract

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic caused the need to implement non-pharmacological intervention, including social distancing, to contain exponential growth in the number of people infected. COVID-19 has been registered in more than 187 countries worldwide and, due to the great advance in relation to disease contamination, several government agencies have adopted several strategies to slow the progression of the disease. In addition, primary health care (PHC) professionals are at the forefront of responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and, therefore, are at higher risk of infection. Objective: to reflect on stress in Primary Health Care (PHC) workers in the pandemic scenario by Covid-19, in the light of Betty Neuman's Systems Model Theory; identify the main predictors for the development of stress in PHC workers. Methodology: This is a Theoretical Essay based on a Narrative Review, on the main predictors for the development of stress in PHC workers, carried out from July to November 2022. The data were analyzed in the light of Betty Neuman's theory. Results: 10 articles were selected to make up the formation of this research. The selected articles emphasized that the main predictors that contribute to the development of stress in primary health care workers in the covid-19 pandemic scenario are organizational, individual, labor and social. The factors associated with occupational stress of health professionals in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were identified as intrapersonal factors the fear of contagion and limited knowledge of the disease; interpersonal: changes in social relationships and fear of contagion to family members, illness among colleagues and family members and loss of loved ones; inadequate health systems and work overload. Interventions focused on prevention were indexed according to the level of primary, secondary and tertiary health care. Conclusions: it showed a growing trend of stress in primary health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic, since the mental health of these professionals has been a great concern because psychic suffering raises alerts about the need for intervention, as professionals are increasingly exposed to chronic stressors. In addition, the use of a theoretical framework made it possible to develop interventions to manage the occupational stress of professionals who deal with COVID-19 on a daily basis and systematize their care in the work environment.