Avaliação do ambiente de prática profissional de enfermagem em unidades de terapia intensiva COVID-19

Abstract

The concept of professional practice environment refersto the perception of characteristics that can favorably or unfavorably influence the achievement of results for patients, professionals and health organizations. It can also be defined as the characteristics that facilitate or hinderthedevelopment of professional activitiesin a given workspace. Several national and internationalstudies highlight the importance of evaluating the nursing practice environment for improvements in the work environment and care practices. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the professional nursing practice environment in the ICU of a university hospital in the context of the COVID-1 pandemic. Evaluate the professional nursing practice environment in the ICU ofa university hospital in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.This is a descriptive study, witha quantitative approach, carried out in the Intensive Care Units of a university hospital in Salvador/BA. in the ICU, from March 2020 to February 2022, in order to cover the most criticalperiods of the pandemic in the state of Bahia. Nurses, nursing technicians/assistants answered the Practice Environment Scale instrument. The data obtained were entered into an Excel® spreadsheet and analyzed using the SPSS Statistics v.20 software. The study is part of the multicenter project Evaluation of nursing care for patients with COVID-19 in Brazilian university hospitals”, approved by the Ethics Committee. The environment of nursing practice was considered mixed. The sample consisted of 68 participants, nursing technicians and nursingassistants (n= 25) and nurses (n= 31), with a predominance of females (83.8%). The ICUs were evaluated as a work environment favorable to the professional practice of nursing with scores above 2.5 in all other subscales “Fundamentals of nursing focused on the quality of care” (2.6),”Skill, leadership and support from nursing coordinators/supervisors to nurses and staff” (3.0) and “Collegial relations between nursing professionals and physicians” (3.1), considering it tobe a good practice environment. The item “Adequate support services that allow me to dedicatetime to patients”, was the one that presented one of the lowest average in the answers obtained (1.96). Among the professional categories showed that the unfavorable perception was proportionally higher among nurses. The hospital has defined care protocols, has an adequate number of people, good professionals who were well evaluated among their peers, but there isa need for the top management to listen to the workers. The nursing practice environment was considered favorable by both nurses and nursing assistants/technicians. The nursing dimensionadopted by the ICUs is sufficient to meet the demands of patients.