The Nursing work and the construction of a democratic society

Abstract

In Brazil, the Nursing work is performed by an expressive contingent of workers, which -according to the last survey by the Brazilian Nursing Association -comprised 1,856,683 professionals, mostly women, distributed into three professional categories: Nurses, Nursing Technicians and Nursing Assistants, who work in public and private health care networks. With salaries lower than other professionals of the sector, they have extensive workdays and shifts (including night shifts), experience authoritarian relationships and constantly have to deal with pain, loss and death of patients, transforming it into a hard work (1) . Aspects such as importance, necessity, stress, laboriousness, achievement, satisfaction, among others that are part of the nature of the work in itself, are also present in the Nursing practice. They are characteristics that arise from the relation between capital and work -relationship between people that hold knowing and doings and perform a specific work mediated by people that have the means for those to perform their production actions and activities.Brazil is a country organized geopolitically as a Federative Republic, and has capitalism as the current economic model, where the relations between capital and labor occur on the basis of obtaining the greatest profit or accumulation possible. This is the reason one observes a series of innovations in those relations, in order to benefit modalities increasingly favorable to the rise of capital to the detriment of labor and respective workers.The thematic proposal of the 69 th Brazilian Nursing Congress (CBEn in the Portuguese acronym) aims to discuss the type of democracy that exists in Brazil, possible influences on the situation of Brazilian Nursing and the democracy defended by the Brazilian Nursing Association: inclusive, free and fair. The democratic society may be understood as a social and political order that assures to its members equality of social status, and may be exerted in two models: competitive or participative democracy. The former model is proper of industrialized societies, whereas the latter demands an enlightened society, capable of participating collectively in the decision-making process to be concretized by the executive power.The competitive democracy represents a selection method of political elites capable of making legislative and administrative decisions necessary for the collectivity's welfare. The key features of this democracy are the existence of a competitiveness environment between rival elites and political parties, as well as an independent and well trained body of administrators and constitutional and practical limits of the political decision scope (2) . In this type of democracy, the main competition is between the elite members for the VOTE of an electorate poorly informed and/or emotionally oriented, a political culture that incentives the emergence of technically qualified specialists and managers, as well as competition for power and advantages among States in the international system (2) . The parti...

Strategic directions for strengthening nursing and midwifery: potentialities and connections in the complex perspective

“…Thus, nursing and midwifery must be understood as professions that, within the scope of human resources for health, assume and practice valuable contributions to ensure access to health services and practices for people and their families in different care contexts (6)(7) . However, it is essential to understand it beyond the profession itself and its reach, significantly, different leaders, which can result in unfolding actions performed by nursing and midwifery, so that they can reach the understanding that investing in these professionals is equivalent to investing in people's quality of life, as well as efficient management of resources to reduce expenses with the fight against diseases (8)(9) . Furthermore, by guaranteeing decent conditions for the maintenance of the economically active population, based on the health and care actions performed by nursing and midwifery, it is possible to conceive the interdependence relationship between these professionals and the economic development of nations.…”