Social representations of brazilian nursing professionals about the Covid-19 the context of mental health

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the social representations of nursing professionals residing in Brazil about the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of mental health. Method: qualitative study with 719 professionals from five geographic regions, using a virtual form. The software IRaMuTeQ®? was used to prepare the empirical material and Thematic Content Analysis, and interpretation in the light of the theoretical framework of Social Representations. Results: Nursing Technicians (20%), Nurses (47.2%), Midwives (0.5%), Professor-Research Nurses (15%), Graduate Nurses (13.4%), Specializing Nurses (13.4%) participated. 3.7%). The SR of nursing professionals are elaborated in the sphere of the precarious work process and in the naturalized experiences of the social construction of the profession, before and in the pandemic context, they are photographs of the reality of a category taken as a machine of a gear and not constituted of subjects of rights. A reality is revealed that has subtracted the possibility of them projecting plans for the future and opens space for the production of mental illness. It is essential to broaden the debate on the daily challenges of the profession so that it is possible to enhance the value of its work, which is avant-garde and its essentiality in health systems, which Nursing cannot ignore. Final Considerations: It was possible to understand that nursing professionals residing in Brazil had been performing their work in a precarious way before the Covid-19 pandemic, and in their practices did not produce major questions. With the pandemic and the risk of contamination, professionals began to look more closely at professional practice and were afraid of naturalized and simplified experiences in the face of not using personal protective equipment. Therefore, they understood that taking care of the other also implies taking care of themselves. This study also reveals that professionals need to re-signify the social construction of the profession and constitute a class consciousness in the face of the mode of production in which they are inserted.