Aplicação da teoria das necessidades humanas básicas de Wanda Horta no cuidado de enfermagem à pessoa idosa na atenção primária

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the application of Wanda Horta's Theory of Basic Human Needs in nursing care for the elderly in primary care. It was a care-research with a qualitative approach. It was carried out with thirty elderly people enrolled in the Teaching Care Unit Professor Gilberto de Macedo, located in the city of Maceió - AL. The collection of information through interviews took place from August to October 2022, during nursing consultations, based on a semi-structured script. The analysis of the information was based on the assumptions of Wanda Horta's theory. The results indicated a predominance of women (73.3%), with a mean age of 72 years, who reported being illiterate, married, of the Protestant religion, with at least one child and mostly residing with a family member. The identified psychobiological human needs were oxygenation; hydration; nutrition; elimination; sleep and rest; exercise and physical activities; sexuality; perception (olfactory, visual and auditory); locomotion/physical safety and neurological regulation/orientation in time and space. It was possible to verify associations between psychobiological needs, which reinforces that the evaluation of the elderly in Primary Care services should aim at a global analysis with emphasis on functionality. Because, for the elderly, only one problem cannot justify their symptomatology, since the long-lived population usually manifests a sum of signs and symptoms, a consequence of several concomitant pathologies, where the inefficiency of one system leads to insufficiency in the others. The psychosocial needs highlighted were love and acceptance/emotional/herbal security; leisure/recreation; self-realization/self-esteem/body care/self-image and freedom of participation/autonomy. It was evident that both men and women had needs related to psychosocial aspects during the consultation. It should be emphasized that despite this result, people of the male and female gender undergo changes in different ways during old age, according to the influences suffered throughout life and the social worldview. Among the psycho-spiritual needs, religious expression predominated and revealed its influence on the quality of life of these people. From this, it was identified that the application of the Theory of Basic Human Needs during the nursing consultation made it possible to carry out care for the elderly in a holistic and comprehensive way, based on their needs, which demonstrates that this theoretical model is configured as a possibility of reorienting the nursing care model in elderly care in primary care.