As / Social representations of nursing students about the comfort of patients monitored in intensive care units

Abstract

Objective: The objective was to analyze the social representations of nursing students and to identify in their speech elements that influence the promotion of comfort to patients monitored in intensive care. Method: This is an observational, cross-sectional, descriptive-exploratory study with a qualitative approach whose observation of the data occurred in the light of Moscovici's social representations. The chosen technique was the content analysis proposed by Bardin; the software IRAMUTEQ 0.7, alpha 2, was used to facilitate data storage. Results: Fifty seven (57) nursing students from a private university in Rio de Janeiro who had already attended clinical or supervised curricular internship in high complexity were interviewed, according to the inclusion criteria of the research and, in its majority, components of generation Y. This study revealed that the nursing students consider the comfort of patients in the four possible contexts: physical, environmental, psycho-spiritual and social; they also think that the hard technology in question, the multi-parametric monitor, represents an important partnership in caring for critical patients. Conclusion: However, undergraduate students believe that such technology must not imply the detriment of the comfort; in their opinion, the concomitant existence of both aspects is perfectly possible. It is concluded that biomedical training focused on high technologies in the intensive care environment has given way to humanization and holistic and comforting care, and that new professionals, already accustomed to constant contact with different technologies, respect them, but they consider the care and comfort of the community as a priority.