Risks, demands, and health damages faced by nursing workers in confronting Covid-19

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how nursing work processes have impacted the health of workers, taking into consideration the risks, demands, and potential damages. Nursing work is characterised by a demand for care that affects workers on various levels: physical, emotional, and psychological during the pandemic, there has been an exacerbation of labor precarity, increased exposure to risks and demands stemming from their work processes, and consequently, health damage. A mixed-method approach was employed, using the triangulation strategy of three data collection techniques: questionnaire surveys, focus groups, and individual interviews. It was found that the majority of participants are women, aged between 30 and 39, identify as having a brown skin color, work as nursing technicians, and have been employed in hospitals specialising in severe Covid-19 cases. The thematic categories identified were workload overload; lack of breaks or facilities for physiological needs; absence, improvisation, or inadequacy of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); noise; health damage: fatigue and illness. These categories have corresponding variables that, in turn, were statistically associated with health damage, such as muscular disorders, sleep disturbances, mental health issues, and dermatological problems.