A atuação de enfermeiros nos institutos federais de educação da região norte do Brasil: visão pré e pós pandemia de COVID-19

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing is present on several campuses of the Federal Institutes of Education (IFE), at the service of the academic community; they work mainly in health promotion and in advising teaching, research and extension activities. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, several control and prevention measures were adopted, also affecting educational institutions such as IFE that reorganized their academic and administrative activities in the remote system, also affecting nurses who work in these institutions, with essential actions to guarantee of the health and safety of the school community and have their importance highlighted in the context of the pandemic. Objective: To analyze the performance of nurses in IFE in the North of Brazil in a pre and post Covid-19 pandemic view, considering the regional Amazonic specificities. Methodology: descriptive research with a qualitative approach carried out with nurses who work in community care at the 7 IFE in the 7 States of the North Region of Brazil. Data collection took place between October 2022 and January 2023 with semi-structured interviews following a script divided into two axes: 1) Characterization of the professional profile of the nurses targeted by the research; and 2) The performance of nurses in the pre- and post-pandemic context within their campuses. Data were processed using the IRAMUTEQ software and submitted to content analysis. Result: 20 nurses from 5 Institutes were interviewed. Most of the participants were female, aged between 28 and 37 years and specialists. Most had between 4 and 7 years of service in the institution. The data organized at Iramuteq pointed five classes, later presented in four categories: The Work place and Training, Work before the Covid-19 Pandemic, Work during the Covid-19 pandemic and Current work perspectives. Final considerations: Nurses in the IFE work mainly in health education, in addition to carrying out nursing procedures and advising on student care; during the pandemic, most of these activities were adapted to the remote model and new ones emerged as support in the institution's planning to combat Covid-19. Some difficulties that already existed were aggravated by the pandemic, such as deficiencies in infrastructure and means of communication, due to factors such as management problems and the peculiarities of the region. Nursing work gained recognition in the pandemic but needs to be further studied and regulated when it comes to performance in educational institutions such as IFE.