OBJECTIVE: To identify the strategies that nursing staff from an emergency department use to prevent illnesses. METHODS: A descriptive qualitative study was used to collect data from nursing staff working in a major public hospital in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Data collection involved the retrieval of information from documents of the Institution, observations of nursing work dynamics, and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed through content analysis. RESULTS: The findings suggest that the nursing staff faces harmful health conditions in the work environment. Nursing staff showed indifference toward death, coldness toward patients' needs in the overcrowded waiting room areas, and undesirable attitudes and humor in the work environment. CONCLUSION: The nursing staff behaviors suggest protective strategies, which warrant the development of interventions that address those behaviors and that promote health in the nursing work environment.
Occupational health; Working conditions; Emergency nursing; Attitude to health