A enfermeira no olhar das clientes: representações da sua prática profissional

Abstract

Qualitative research has as object of study the social representations of nurses and their practice as viewed by their clients. It is aimed at analysing the social representations - the research having taken place at "Institute for Women's Health of Juiz de Fora"- and discussing the repercussions of such social representations on the nurses' practice. ln order to collect infromation, the technique of creativity and sensibility and the semi-structered interview have been used. The subjects of the study were nineteen clients who attended "Institute for Women' s Health" in the Municipal Departament of Health of Juiz de Fora. The results have been categorized with basis on the theoretical and methodologiacal reference point of the theory on social representations, outlined into two themes: "drugs and solutions": the nurse's dilution in the nursing team and of health and the relationship nurse-client - the key to create new representations. The results have shown that the clients, when referring to the nurse, do not make any difference between him/her and the other members of the team; for the denomination, in the group' s conceptiom, refers to professionals involved in a practice characterized by a series of technical tasks, scarcely qualified. On the other hand, when describing the assistance given by the Nurse of the Institute, the subjects represent a specialized and qualified pratice, with enphasis on a humanized relationship. It has been higlighted in this investigation that the clients have na oversimpliying representation of the nurse, full steretypes. However, when the subjects establish a relationship in the context of assistance and rely on this relationship to interpret the nurse, a change occurs: they readjust their representations, this relationship being the key to create new representations of the nurses' pratice.