Vivendo e aprendendo no ambiente hospitalar: Percepções de crianças sobre a doença

This study focuses on the child within the hospital environment. Its purpose is to describe children s perceptions of their illness and time in hospital and to identify their main hardships during treatment. This study has a qualitative nature and is theoretically and methodologically supported by the creative and sensitive method developed by Cabral (1998), studies by Piaget, Vygotsky and Wallon on child development, and studies conducted by Pinto (2005), Collet (2004), Chiattone (2003), Silva (2002), Lima et.al (1999) on in-patient children. For this study, 13 children between the ages of 7 and 12 at a public hospital institution specialized in child care in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, were interviewed. As a criterion for taking part in this study the children would have to have been in hospital for over three days and be fully capable of physically and emotionally interacting with the researcher at the time the interview took place. Analysis drew on the study of the empirical material made up of interviews and a field diary where notes had been entered for the children s reactions, expressions and gestures. Results show that there is some understanding, on the part of these children, of their illness, with their parents as the main informants. They accept being in hospital because they need treatment, but they realize that life becomes different especially on account of the constraints resulting from the illness and the hospital itself. The main hardships during treatment are: lack of recreational activities in the evenings and on the weekends within the hospital environment; absence of family members, especially brothers and sisters; and lack of explanation on the part of health professionals regarding some procedures as these are being carried out. Our conclusion is that children perceive illness and the hospital environment as something that changes the rhythm of their lives bringing on them perturbations, fears and anxieties. Hence, we suggest that professionals working with in-patient children should be especially prepared to deal with these children and their parents, aiming at bringing down fears and anguishes, clear their doubts and, in addition, advise the parents in respect of their children s treatment while in hospital and after hospital discharge. The hospital environment should also be cheerful and colorful and have a toy room under the coordination of persons especially prepared for that purpose

Hospital humano: etnografia da humanização hospitalar na perspectiva de usuários

This ethnographic work studies the experiences of patients admitted in public (PUH) and private (PRH) hospitals in the Brazilian northeastern region. 28 adult patients of different clinics participated in the study. Data were analyzed by the patient path method, consisting in a combination of complemented and articulated techniques free observation, participating observation, ethnographic interview and patient testimonials collected prospectively during the patients admissions, from their arrival and until their discharge. The analysis was carried out according to the Thematic Categories Analysis Technique and the data were interpreted pursuant to medical anthropology, healthcare humanization and healthcare promotion theoretical references. The ethical principles of Resolution 196/96 were followed. The human hospital, as revealed by the patient, highlights the significance of subjectivity. 225 (54.7%) out of 411 mentioned concepts were collected in a public hospital (PUH) and 186 (45.3%) in a private institution (PRH). The results show that the patient at the PUH and PRH ethnoevaluates different aspects of the healthcare professionals´ human and technical competence, the hospital´s functioning structure, the access to and the ethics in the financial management, and develops overcoming strategies for his stay at the hospital. This ethnoevaluation is mediated by different factors, namely: social and economic status, personality, religiosity, ironic speech, somber diagnosis and satisfied needs, prior hospital experiences and the conditions under which the interview was carried out. A pedagogic proposal for the hospital humanization must include structural, managerial and organizational changes of the offered services and use active methodologies aimed to the political resolution of problematic situations at work and the inclusion of affective and subjective factors, and become as well a tool for the collective learning. This study shows the importance for the user´s ethnoevaluation to be incorporated into the hospital management and care as a guideline in the decision making and clinical action, thus promoting practices that shall lead to a decent and humanized care. The multidisciplinary nature of this study allowed a wide understanding of the user´s perspective as a socially critical ethnoevaluator

Moradores crônicos de hospital psiquiátrico: um desafio à desinstitucionalização

The existence of chronic inhabitants in the psychiatric hospitals imposes a challenge to the Psychiatric Reform, that proposes things such as the gradual and progressive way to extinct mental institutions, once the permanence of the hospital in the system is only necessary because there is not a net of well structured substitute services capable of receiving that demand. This work considered relevant to deepen the knowledge about those people who passes their lives jailed by the walls of psychiatric hospitals and compose significant part of the world population. It also aimed to investigate the problem relative to the condition of being an inhabitant of a psychiatric hospital the Dr. João Machado Hospital (HJM), in the city of Natal/RN. The paper used different points of view (patients , families and professionals ) to define the profile of the inhabitants, to identify the possibility of insertion in substituting social equipment, to know the expectations of the inhabitants and their relatives regarding to the exit of the life shelter, to investigate the demands related to the net of cares social support for making feasible the discharge and to identify the difficulties that are involved in the exit of the chronic inhabitant of the hospital. There were defined three methodological phases: delineation of the identification, socio-economic and clinical profile of the inhabitants of the HJM; semi-structured interviews with professionals; and open interviews with inhabitants and family. It concluded that the psychiatric institutionalization contributes to the generation of chronic inhabitants in the psychiatric hospitals. Among the professionals, it was detached the defense of desospitalization, but an existence of devices of the asylum model. The relatives showed a resistance to participate in the care and the inhabitants exposed their desire to leave the hospital, as well like the wish of permanence. It was considered important: the construction of an extra-hospital net that enables to desinstitutionalization; the qualification of the technical; orientation to the family, stimulating its participation in the process of caring; give freedom to the individuals in mental suffering, enabling them to be ahead of their lives and express their desires and opinions; the implementation of an extended clinic that is capable of building new possibilities; and a subjectivity guided by the social enclosure