Serviço social ante a urgência da urgência: impactos da pandemia da covid-19 no trabalho em Hospitais e Prontos-Socorros Adultos do Amazonas

Abstract

The research entitled “SOCIAL WORK IN THE FACE OF THE URGENCY OF EMERGENCY: impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the work in Adult Hospitals and Emergency Rooms in Amazonas" focuses on the professional work of social workers in the emergency and urgent care units during the pandemic. The study's loci are the Adult Hospitals and Emergency Rooms (HPSAs) in Amazonas, which were designated to treat severe covid-19 cases. Due to the overwhelming demand and the scale of the health crisis, marked by a high number of deaths, these units even required refrigerated containers. The subjects of this research are the social workers operating in these HPSAs, as they dealt with a double emergency: both the pandemic context and the hospitals' purpose. Consequently, they were required to respond more quickly to daily professional challenges while facing increased pressures from both the health unit administrations and the population demanding urgent care. The general objective is to analyze the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the configuration of social workers' practices in Adult Hospitals and Emergency Rooms in Amazonas. The specific objectives are: to problematize the urgency and emergency in Amazonas' healthcare system and the effects of the pandemic on HPSA workers; to investigate the transformations in the working conditions and relationships of social workers in these units during the health crisis; and to characterize the challenges and strategies of social workers in the urgency and emergency sectors in Amazonas during the pandemic. To achieve these objectives, bibliographic, documental, and field research was conducted, with an explanatory nature, grounded in the historical-dialectical materialist method and a qualitative-quantitative approach. The results indicate that social workers in healthcare have historically struggled to uphold the respect for their duties and responsibilities, in line with their Code of Ethics, Regulatory Law, and professional resolutions. However, with the onset of the health and humanitarian crisis, they had to fight to reaffirm their basic rights to dignity, as well as to maintain their physical and mental health, while safeguarding their professional rights.