Abstract
Workers affected by occupational illnesses face many difficulties to return to work. This intervention research aimed to approach and understand experiences of return to work and their implications to the subjectivity production of hospital workers who returned to work after participating in a rehabilitation program. The research was conducted with groups of rehabilitated workers within a large university hospital in Porto Alegre, RS. The meetings (8) were held with workers (20) of various functions and areas of the hospital, who had participated in a professional rehabilitation program, and were developing their activities either in their original area or in a new work position. The results point to the difficulties, limitations and to the problematization of current work management models. However, they also indicate the creation of new ways of working and living, in affirmative positions as hospital workers and the collective construction of inventiveness strategies.
Keywords:
professional rehabilitation; return to work; work clinics; workers’ health; intervention research