Institutional Violence against Hospitalized Children: The Perception of Nursing Professionals

Abstract

Objective: To understand the perception of the Nursing team about institutional violence against hospitalized children. Materials and method: A qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study, performed at a large-size public hospital in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, with 17 Nursing professionals working in the Pediatrics unit, to whom semi-structured interviews were applied between March and May 2019. The collected data were categorized in the NVIVO12 software and submitted for content analysis. Results: The results are presented in four categories: The professionals’ lack of knowledge about institutional violence against hospitalized children; Recognition of institutional violence related to problems in the hospital infrastructure, Recognition of institutional violence in interpersonal relationships and Recognition of institutional violence in the care practices. Conclusions: It becomes necessary to apply policies to confront institutional violence, ranging from training the professionals to adapting the spaces and care practices to favor the children’s hospitalization environment.