THE MEANINGS OF WORK IN HOSPITAL HEALTHCARE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC:
AN EMPIRICAL-PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY
Keywords:
Meanings of work, meanings of work in healthcare, Mental health of the COVID-19-worker.Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic mobilized societies all over the world in their most diverse expressions, being in the personal or collective scope, with great loss to the health of the individuals, to daily life, to economy, and, specifically, to Health Systems. Furthermore, accentuated health professionals’ struggles in providing their services, being in the workers’ structural, organizational, and physical capacity scopes, or in the scope of healthcare workers’ psychological experience of the pandemic scenario. This article is the result of qualitative, descriptive and analytical research, based on the empirical-phenomenological method, and carried out with workers from a children's hospital, with the aim of analyzing the meanings of the experiences of hospital health workers faced with the demands and challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In general, the research results indicate that the pandemic was experienced by workers as an abrupt event that caused major occupational repercussions, with predominantly fearful reactions, work overload, search for self-preservation and preservation of emotionally important people, and a feeling of helplessness from the worker facing the organizational situation of the public health system
