Reflexivity, knowledge and ecological awareness: premises for responsible action in the hospital work environment

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the interface of reflexivity, knowledge and ecologic awareness in the context of hospital work, based on data collected in a qualitative case study carried out at a public hospital.Field observation data and interviews are discussed in the light of sociologic and philosophic references. Workers expressed the interface between knowledge and action, in which there is a cycle of lack of knowledge, automatism in the actions and lack of environmental awareness, posing limits to individual awareness and to responsibility towards environmental preservation. Increased debate and education, including the environmental issue, are needed in the context of hospital work. Although hospital work is reflexively affected by the environmental problem, that does not guarantee the reorientation of practices and responsible action towards the environment. DESCRIPTORS

Avaliação de ações ecologicamente sustentáveis no processo de medicação

“…Another action involved the discard of these returned medications until the pharmacy services and information technology seeks ways to control the time between the egress and the return of medications. It is agreed that, when to exist the opportunity for strategies of knowledge gaining about environmental problems or to minimize its impact, people have higher subsidies to reflect on their behavior, motivating them to build responsible actions for the environment (8) .…”

“…However, health professionals still have not been involved with this cause. Data research shows that workers are unaware the impacts that their improper actions cause at population level, reflecting increased costs and environmental damage (8) . Another study shows that despite high percentages of staff have declared their intention to conserve properly, reuse and discard the materials, the actions were different from the desired behavior (9) .…”

Discussing the Consequences of Environmental Education Actions in a Context of Reflective Modernity

“…6 In the hospital context, however, the actions in this area are almost nil, being presented in a study on the issue, as specific and very limited initiatives, 7 although in the literature there is the recognition that the reflections from EE activities can motivate more responsible actions for health by the health workers; reordering social practices. 8 It is recognized that if these spaces of reflection do not exist [or are limited], there is a perpetuation of mechanized and automated conducts; and of banalised discourses about the environmental crisis. [8][9] Therefore, there is a pressing need to debate the issue in health institutions, through a systematic, comprehensive and permanent method of education, 10 not only concerned with informative actions but also with awareness and reflection.…”

“…8 It is recognized that if these spaces of reflection do not exist [or are limited], there is a perpetuation of mechanized and automated conducts; and of banalised discourses about the environmental crisis. [8][9] Therefore, there is a pressing need to debate the issue in health institutions, through a systematic, comprehensive and permanent method of education, 10 not only concerned with informative actions but also with awareness and reflection.…”

“…In spite of this, research correlating health and environmental institutions has been directed in particular to the approach of the epidemiological bias, or approach to quality of life and health promotion, or to the issue of waste from health services 8,[10][11] so that discussions about EE actions in such institutions correspond to a gap in current literature. What exist are more general studies in other fields of knowledge that, when they discuss EE, they give an idea of paths to be followed in health institutions aswell.…”