The Brazilian nursing workforce faced with the international trends: an analysis in the International Year of Nursing

Abstract

The article analyzes the condition of the Brazilian Nursing workforce when confronted with international trends. Diagnoses in publications by international organizations marked the confrontation of international trends with the reality of Brazilian Nursing, based on secondary research data. The analysis allows asserting that the Brazilian Nursing workforce follows international trends, essentially, because the social and sexual division of work and the foundations of the origin of Nursing as a capitalist occupation are maintained. At the same time, the historical-structural assumption of female proletarianization is based on the following: the disparities between men and women in pay and access to prominent positions in the market; combined inequalities across nations and regions in the supply of the labor market, which stimulates immigration of professionals; exploitation of older professionals, in the context of restricted access to retirement and labor rights; and exposure to violence and harassment, associated with the potential for overload and work intensification, which result in workers contracting diseases. In summary, it is observed that the pillars of female proletarianization and professionalization of Nursing remain in today's differentiated forms of workforce exploitation, being configured depending on the intersections of gender, racial-ethnicity, and regional-nationality.