Riscos de adoecimento, prazer e sofrimento no cotidiano laboral de enfermeiros docentes de pós-graduação “stricto sensu”: abordagem de métodos mistos

Abstract

The overall aim of this paper is to assess the risks of illness in nurse educators of non-degree graduate programmes at public institutions of Rio Grande do Sul. The specific aim is to understand the work contexts of nurse educators regarding their experiences of pleasure and pain, detect whether these educator identify the effects of work on their health, and learn about the alternatives educators use to cope with suffering and work-related illness. This is a cross-sectional study with a mixed method design, i.e., qualitative and quantitative. The research scenario was non-degree graduate programmes in nursing at three public institutions of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Data were collected between November 2015 and October 2016. The data collection tools were a sociodemographic and work-related questionnaire, the work and health hazard inventory (“ITRA”) and a semi-structured interview. To participate in the study, teachers should meet the following inclusion criteria: to have a Nursing education, to work in a "Scricto Sensu" Graduate Program in Nursing in the researched institutions; have at least one dissertation defense or student-oriented thesis. The exclusion criteria were teachers who were removed by license of any nature during the period established for data collection. Fifty educators participated in the quantitative stage and 20 educators participated in the qualitative stage. Data from the questionnaire were subjected to simple descriptive statistical analysis and data from the interviews were subjected to thematic analysis proposed by Bardin. With regard to the sociodemographic results, most of the educators were women, aged between 51 and 60 (98%), with mean age of 53.92 (SD = 8.01), and married or in a stable union (74%). In terms of work-related characteristics, most of the educators began teaching in the graduate programmes between 2009 and 2014 (40%), had never taken a health-related leave of absence for more than three days or in the last six months (98%), and had never suffered a work accident (98%). In the quantitative analyses regarding the health hazard, most educators assessed this risk as moderate. However, some factors and items were considered a serious health hazard. The factor “cognitive cost” received the worse evaluation from the educators, followed by "work organisation" and "working conditions", which was also verified through the interviews. Qualitative data analyses resulted in the following four categories: Experiences of satisfaction and pleasure in graduate work; Experiences of suffering in teaching work; Work-related heath alterations and/or problems; and Alternatives used by the educators to cope with suffering and illness. Results show the recorded experiences and categories have a direct effect on the health and well-being of educators. Furthermore, it was found the educators suffer significant demands at work and the work context is not always favourable for the development of their activities. Thus, work and working conditions must be correctly organised to ensure the well-being of educators and minimise the chances of illness.