INFECÇÕES NO MEIO AMBIENTE HOSPITALAR: REPRESENTAÇÕES SOCIAIS DE PROFISSIONAIS COM ATUAÇÃO EM UNIDADE DE TERAPIA INTENSIVA - GOIÂNIA GO

Abstract

Nosocomial infection is a problem found all over the world, being responsible for the increase of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The objective of this study is: to know the social representation (SR) of the nosocomial infection (NI) for nurses and physician who work in the intensive care unit (ICU), aiming to discover the aspects that are probably related to the adoption or not of preventive conducts against nosocomial infection. This is a transversal study carried out in hospitals of Goiania city in the years of 2007 and 2008. A hundred nurses and physicians that worked in ICU participated in the study. It was executed in two stages. In the first one, an instrument with three questions that had different approaches to the theme was elaborated: the first question evokes specifically the theme of nosocomial infection; the second is to identify the five main risk factors related to nosocomial infection found in ICU; based on the answers emitted by the concerning subjects of the second question, it was solicited in the third question that the subjects explained why they considered the two first answers, of question number two, as an important risk factor for NI. The answers to the first questioning were processed in the EVOC software, after the construction of a data base, preparation of which was preceded by the organization of the dictionary containing words brought forward by the subjects. The answers to the second and the third questions were categorized according to groups in which the significance of frequency resembled. After this stage, with the intent of verifying the centrality of the elements identified in the first stage of the study, a second instrument was built from the subjects' speech regarding the main risks of NI in ICU. This instrument consists of two questions: the first is in the form of the Likert School; and the second made with nine items and three alternatives. A table was built at the end of this stage containing the frequency of the variables. After the creation of a dada bank using the Excel software, for the first question the dada were transferred to the SPSS Version 16 software and for the second question a graphic of lines was created. Results: the words hand washing (46%), gravity / immunosuppression (43%), multiresistante bacteria (29%) and invasive procedures (18%) appeared in the evoking question, which are central in the representation. The majority of the professionals that participated in the study pointed out the hand washing (42%), immunodepression / gravity of the case (41%) and the existence of a multiresistante microorganism (39%) as the main risk factors for NI. Conclusion: In this context, the structural study of the social representation of nosocomial infection allows us to formulate a hypothesis where the subjects elaborated a evaluative type of thinking that show some risk factors that don t annul themselves completely by washing the hands, in spite of the fact that the subjects adopted the belief in which the hygienic cleaning of the hands is a determining factor of prevention.