Violência institucional no âmbito da saúde reprodutiva : a percepção de mulheres usuárias do SUS, na cidade de Natal/RN

Institutional violence ranges from the most widespread lack of access to the poor quality of services provided. It includes abuses committed by virtue of the unequal power between patients and professionals within institutions. The aim of this study was to analyze the perception of women with regard to this type of violence, in the services offered at a reproductive health facility belonging to the National Health System (SUS) in Natal, Brazil. Interdisciplinary perspective is important, in that it provides interaction and complementarity between various disciplines, favoring, in an integrated way, a thematic approach in research activities, teaching and extension, involving professionals, students and researchers in medicine, social services, psychology, nursing, anthropology and physical therapy. A quantitative/qualitative approach was used, involving a sample of 401 women, as part of a transversal observational study. In the qualitative stage, which consisted of participatory observation and semi-structured interviews, we used an intentional sample of 10 individuals. The data were analyzed using logistic regression techniques, correspondence analysis and categorical thematic content analysis, showing that the 2 questions that investigated directly the perception of institutional violence obtained affirmative response frequencies of 28.2% and 31.8%, respectively. In regard to data collected in a field diary related to participatory observation, the main complaints referred to the health providerpatient relation, translated into dissatisfaction with the interpersonal relationship and with the resolution of the specific demand that required care. From content analysis, we classified 4 categories: Access; Information; Health professionalpatient relation; and Respect/dignity. We identified 6 subcategories: Impossibility of choice; Repressed demand; Communication difficulty; Asymmetric interpersonal relations; Privacy/confidentiality; Disrespect. We concluded, therefore, that the data presented show that in the reproductive health care programs, there are indicators of institutional violence. However, it is difficult to approach this phenomenon, mainly because of the power relations involved in the patient-health care provider interaction, resulting from unawareness that determinate situations violate sexual and reproductive rights. This can be explained by sociostructural questions that reveal marked inequalities, ratified by issues related to violation of the rights of National Health System (SUS) patients

Atividades profissionais da enfermagem no contexto hospitalar: influências nas relações de trabalho

The present study is based on an analysis of professional work relationships in the nursing team from the task/skills of its members as a contribution to understanding the work process in nursing. It is aimed to identify the skills of the nursing team members through the vision of nurses, technicians and nursing assistants, thus it attempts to find strategies to improve the health assistance to patients. It is a descriptive and analytical study with a qualitative approach grounded in theoretical and methodological framework of Symbolic Interactionism. The research was carried out in the participant work place, a Public Hospital of Reference for the SUS, located in the eastern health district of Natal/RN. Nineteen nursing professionals participated in the study, which seven was nurse and twelve nursing technician. As procedure to collect data we used an unstructured interview accompanied by a standard topic guide which was recorded and later transcribed. The content analysis was chosen as the main methodology to analyze the discussion, which gave rise to thematic categories that were considered relevant based on the theoretical framework of this study, and the interactionist theory. This study was in accordance with the ethical principles of the Resolution nº. 196/96, it has obtained an appropriate consent of the UFRN Research Ethics Committee. The results indicate that the professionals seen the nursing as a profession strongly attached to the health care process and as a profession that acquired a scientific status very recently. Regarding to the nursing functions in the work process in nursing, the professionals they identified the manage/administer category as the main activities developed by these professionals, thus the education and complex care in nursing categories. Concerning to the technicians and nursing assistants functions, it was figured out in the professional s opinion that there is not distinction among the attribution of these categories. The interviewed were unanimous in report that these professionals are more involved in direct patient health care through performance of basic duties in nursing care. Finally, with regard to the work relationship among nursing team members, the majority of those interviewed see this relationship as disharmony and quarrelsome and in general, there is not bond between categories that comprise the process of work in nursing. On the basis of our results we consider the importance of knowing the meaning of nursing given by these professionals; also their skills could be useful as basis to identify problems, which source could be detected in the power relationship, deviations of functions, gap between design (knowledge) and performance (doing) work, besides the loss of the global activities view in the process of nursing work

Validação do instrumento dos indicadores observáveis da qualidade do cuidado em instituições de longa permanência para idosos

The Nursing Homes are an important alternative care in the world, but Brazil still has no valid instrument to monitor the quality these institutions. In the United States, the Observable Indicators of Nursing Home Care Quality Instrument (OIQ) is used to assess the quality of Nursing Home care using 30 indicators of structure (2 dimensions) and process (5 dimensions) related to quality person-centered care. The present study aimed at cross-culturally adapting the OIQ in order to evaluate the quality of Nursing Home care in Brazil. Conceptual and item equivalence were determined to assess the relevance and viability of OIQ in the Brazilian context, using the Content Validity Index (CVI) and a group of specialists composed of 10 participants directly involved in the object of study. Next, operational, idiomatic and semantic equivalence were carried out concurrently. This consisted of 5 phases: (1) two translations and (2) their respective back translations; (3) formal appraisal of referential and general meaning; (4) review by a second group of specialists; (5) application of the pretest at three Nursing Homes by different social entities: health professionals, sanitary surveillance regulators and potential consumers. Measurement equivalence was evaluated by the Cronbach’s alpha test to verify the internal consistency of the instrument. To measure inter-evaluator agreement, the General Agreement Index (ICG) and Kappa coefficient were used. Timely compliance and 95% Confidence Interval of indicators, dimensions and total construct were estimated. The CVI obtained high results for both relevance (95.3%) and viability (94.3%) in the Brazilian context. With respect to referential meaning, similarity was observed, ranging between 90-100% for the first back translation and 70-100% for the second. In relation to general meaning, version 1 was better, classified as “unchanged” in 80% of the items, whereas in version 2 it was only 47%. In the pretest, the OIQ was easy to understand and apply. The following outcomes were obtained: a high Cronbach’s alpha (0.93), satisfactory ICG (75%) and substantial agreement between the pairs of evaluators (health professionals, regulators from the Superintendency of Sanitary Surveillance –SUVISA-, and potential consumers), according to the Kappa coefficient (0.65). It´s possible take the operational equivalence held since it preserved the original layout in the Brazilian version from the maintenance in application mode, response options, number of items, statements and scores. The performance of nursing homes obtained approximate average scores of 87, a variation 55-111 considering a range from 30 to 150 points. The worst outcomes were related to process indicators with a mean of 2.8 per item, while structure was 3.75 on a scale of 1 to 5. The lowest score was obtained for the care dimension (mean 2). The OIQ version was deemed to be a valid and reliable instrument in the Brazilian context. It is recommended that health professionals, regulators and potential consumers adopt it to access and monitor the quality of Nursing Home care and demonstrating opportunities for improvement.