Identification of nurse work safety measures used in emergency service during pandemic in the state of Goiás, Brazil

Faria, Everson; Arão, Isabelle; Simões, Helder; Vidal, Diogo

BACKGROUND: Due to the Nurses performance in the front line to combat COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, the exposure of these healthcare professionals has become a health and safety problem in the professional sphere. The objective of the present work was to identify the existing safety measures to protect the nursing team in the Health System. METHODS: A survey was conducted in October 2020 through an online platform to 89 professionals nurses working in municipalities in the state of Goiás, Brazil, on the front lines in the fight against COVID-19. RESULTS: 83.1% reported that they received training to deal with the pandemic. 68.2% of the participants do not have the right to use the refusal of activity in the face of a situation that jeopardized their health. The majority of the sample (56.2%) claimed to have had no psychological support, have worked under pressure (62.9%) and have contact with an infected patient (89.9%). The results identified several safety measures implemented to protect the nursing team: training, distribution, use and control of Individual protection equipment PPE; existence of a prevention commission, security dialogue meetings; informational communication about the pandemic and the existence of a cleaning and hygiene team. CONCLUSIONS: The research concluded that there is still a lack of adherence to various safety measures in daily activities, once isolated measures do not minimize exposure and/or contagion. Despite collective measures being not enough to protect the nursing team, they are the most recommended at the current state of knowledge.