Accidents with biological material: an approach based on the analysis of work activities

Abstract

The present qualitative study was carried out in a university hospital, with the purpose of analyzing the work of nursing assistants and technicians, the numerous category among health profess als and more prone to accidents in the workplace. This hospital has little alore than 2.000 nurses. Two methods of an were used. 1) The Collective Analysis of Work (ACT - Analise Coletiva do Trabolho), consists of meetings with small groups of workers who explain their work. Four meetings were scheduled, and 34 participants, almost all of them females, attended. 2) The Model for An and Prevention of Accidents (MAPA), a unique method for the occupational accidents an was held in one of the hospital clinics, with an injured worker that agreed to participate. The results revealed that work routines consist of a list of patients care tasks, characterized by a great variability in their daily work schedule. Many interruptions and overlapping tasks arise from urgent demands, besides issues in the organizational aspects of the situation that engendered the accident, as well as the fragility of the system of work safety in the hospital.