Entrepreneurship in Nursing: overview of companies in the State of São Paulo

Abstracts

Objective:

the present study aimed to identify and characterize nursing companies managed by entrepreneur nurses registered at the Commercial Registry of São Paulo by 2011.

Method:

it's a descriptive, exploratory study, whose data collection, made throughout January 2012, was carried out on the Commercial Registry of Sao Paulo website. This non-governmental body has the function of registering the opening of companies and supervising their trade situation.

Results and conclusion:

this study allowed us to identify that the entrepreneur nurse is a growing reality through the identification of 196 companies opened by these professionals. Afterwards, it was analyzed their time of functioning, the main economic activity of the company, capital value, percentage of nurse partners and the distribution of companies by region of Sao Paulo State.

Job Market; Entrepreneurship; Nursing

Objetivo:

o presente estudo teve como objetivo identificar e caracterizar as empresas de enfermagem dirigidas por enfermeiros empresários, registradas na Junta Comercial do Estado de São Paulo até 2011.

Método:

trata-se de um estudo exploratório, descritivo, cuja coleta de dados, realizada durante o mês de janeiro de 2012, foi efetuada no site da Junta Comercial do Estado de São Paulo, órgão para-governamental que tem a função de registrar a abertura de empresas e fiscalizar sua situação comercial.

Resultados e conclusão:

o estudo permitiu identificar que o enfermeiro empreendedor é uma realidade em ascensão a partir da identificação de 196 empresas abertas por esse profissional, posteriormente analisou-se o tempo de existência, a atividade econômica principal da empresa, valor de capital, porcentagem de sócios enfermeiros e a distribuição das empresas por região do Estado de São Paulo.

Mercado de Trabalho; Contrato de Risco; Enfermagem

Objetivo:

este estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar las empresas de enfermería dirigidas por enfermeros empresarios, inscritos en la Junta Comercial del Estado de São Paulo para el ano 2011.

Método:

se trata de un estudio exploratorio, descriptivo, cuya recolección de datos, se efectuó durante el mes de enero de 2012 en el sitio web de la Junta Comercial del Estado de São Paulo, órgano gubernamental que tiene la función de registrar la apertura de empresas y supervisar su situación comercial.

Resultados y conclusión:

el estudio reveló que el enfermero emprendedor es una realidad creciente a partir de 196 empresas abiertas por estos profesionales, posteriormente se analizo el tiempo de existencia, la actividad económica principal de la empresa, la cantidad de capital, el porcentaje de socios enfermeros y la distribución de las empresas por región del estado de São Paulo.

Mercado de Trabajo; Contrato de Riesgo; Enfermería

INTRODUCTION

Entrepreneurship is defined as the establishment or improvement of something, in order to generate benefits to individuals and society. This phenomenon has advanced in recent decades due to economic transformations, technological innovations and globalization⁽¹⁾. In order to follow this new scenario, nurses should recognize that even with multiple skills, they need to face new challenges, in the sense of exploring opportunities and seeing new areas of action. It is understood that being an entrepreneur is being able to start new fields and professional work practices.

To achieve his/her objectives, the entrepreneur creates and adds innovative processes to their capability of creating contact networks and its use, planning, setting goals and achieving them. Therefore, these professionals must be organized, knowing the use of resources and knowledge, seeking feedback to improve, taking calculated risks, and adding value to society⁽²⁾.

Brazil turned its attention to the entrepreneurship subject from the 1990s, a period of intensification of practices and policies to stimulate the opening of micro and small companies, which have mainly multiplied to meet the increased demand of domestic and international markets associated with work and technology advance⁽³⁾.

Micro, small and medium companies are responsible for generating much of the formal and informal jobs and a significant fraction of exportation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country, so its importance is undeniable. In Brazil, micro and small companies account for 57.3% of formal jobs and account for 20% of GDP⁽²⁾.

The State of Sao Paulo has great economic importance for the country and has, as Brazil's capital, the fifth most populous city in the world, being expected to become the sixth richest city in the world by 2025. It is currently the tenth richest city in the world with the highest GDP in Brazil⁽⁴⁾.

According to studies about the difficulty of getting a job, given the instability of the professional market in all areas, including health, researchers warn for the necessity for carriers to be redesigned, opening own business, or even continuing as an employee, but acting and thinking as an entrepreneur, that is, setting goals, being obstinate and proposing innovative ideas. Job vacancies for nurses in hospitals and health services will be increasingly scarce in Brazil, due to the conformation of the market and the workforce⁽⁵⁾.

Since 1946, nurse is recognized as profession, by ministerial opinion of September 3^rd 1946, in which nursing as an autonomous activity was also allowed⁽⁶⁾. According to national census, it can be inferred that this practice had its initial impulse in 1980, when 28 functioning units of independent nursing clinics were accounted in the country, until 1983, where, at the time, 0.05% of the total nursing workforce worked⁽⁷⁾. It is not known what has happened since then, since there are no published studies on the subject. Given this scenario, we ask: Are there currently nursing companies in Sao Paulo? What are the characteristics of these companies?

OBJECTIVE

To identify and to characterize nursing companies administered by nurses entrepreneurs, registered in the Commercial Registry of the State of Sao Paulo.

METHODS

Exploratory, descriptive study, in which data collection, held during the month of January in 2012, was carried out on the Commercial Registry of Sao Paulo website, with registered nurses entrepreneurs by 2011. This institution is a non-governmental organization which aims at recording company openings and monitoring their situation, it is necessary to obtain a record protocol, among other legal permits for the creation of any commercial company⁽⁸⁾. Each State of the Federation has its Commercial Registry, and Sao Paulo, the most productive economic state, has most of the records in the country.

To obtain the data, one of the researchers and a research assistant were registered with JUCESP, as ordinary citizens, without infraction of the rules of the institution and Brazilian law. With the keyword "nursing", all simplified registration forms from the relevant companies were selected, and for each of them we collected the selected variables for the study, namely: company's corporate purpose, which indicates what type of activity is developed, invested capital, the company's age, corporate framework, the name and training of entrepreneurs, and hometowns of companies.

We selected the name and registration number for the National Persons Registry (CPF) of entrepreneurs identified with Nursing training and, on the website of the regulatory agency of professional practice, the Nursing Regional Council⁽⁹⁾, each name was searched to identify the professional category to which they belonged - nurses, technicians or assistants. They were classified as "other" when entrepreneurs names did not match any of the records at COREN-SP.

Data were collected and organized in a database in Microsoft Excel, to calculate the distribution of simple and relative frequency of the variables. Continuous variables were the type of company active, age of the company, main economic activity, capital value, percentage of nurse partners, distribution of companies by region of the state of Sao Paulo.

RESULTS

When analyzing data, we found a total of 196 active companies administered by nurse entrepreneurs. In the decade from 1990 to 2000, 26 (13.3%) companies were constituted and in the following decade, 170 (86.7%), as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1
Year of establishment of companies, State of Sao Paulo, 2012

When any company is opened, there was the need for capital investment ranging from R$1.000, 00¹ to more than R$100,000.00 presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2
Invested capital for opening of companies, State of Sao Paulo, 2012

From the 196 companies identified, 31 (16%) invested a capital from R$500.00 to R$ 1,000.00; 83 (42%) invested between R$1,001.00 to R$5,000.00; 40 (20%) between R$ 5,001.00 to R$ 10,000.00; 34 (17%) between R$10,001.00 to R$50,000.00; three (2%) invested between R$ 50,001.00

The study found that 196 companies were opened by owners’ partners in different types of partnership. From this, all the names in the registration forms have gone through identification in the COREN-SP website, so we identified that among company owners, 290 were Nursing professionals distributed in three categories: 203 nurses (75.5%), 44 (16.3%) nursing assistants and 22 (8.2%) nursing technicians. Of these, 269 were registered and active in COREN-SP and 21 were inactive. In 62% of companies located in Greater Sao Paulo, there was at least one nurse on it.

Regarding the distribution of companies in the State of Sao Paulo (Figure 3), we found that most of them are located in big cities. The study showed that 70(36%) of these companies are located in Sao Paulo, followed by cities in Greater Sao Paulo and countryside, such as Sao Bernardo with 14(7%) companies, Sorocaba 12(6%), Campinas 11(6%) and Taubate 9(4%). Other cities like Sao Caetano do Sul, Araraquara, Poa, Barretos, Guaruja, Piracicaba and Santos totaled 26(13%) registered companies. Figure 3 highlights 54(28%) companies registered in other cities. This number refers to the registration of one or two companies in different cities.

Figure 3
Distribution of companies by city in the state of Sao Paulo, 2012

The study also allowed the identification of the size of the company (Figure 4), 16 (8%) companies registered as small, 76 (39%) as micro companies. Of the total, more than half, 104 (53%) did not specify the size of the company.

Figure 4
Distribution of companies according to size, State of Sao Paulo, 2012

As a social purpose, that is, the type of service provided, 110 (55%) companies were registered as nursing activity, 25 (13%) as retail, 25 (13%) education activities related to technical vocational education. 16 (8%) companies stated other activities unrelated to nursing activities, 7 (4%) of training activities, 5 (3%) provision of services, 4 (2%) equipment rental, 2 (1%) wholesale and 2 (1%) consulting firms, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5
Social purpose of companies, State of Sao Paulo 2012

DISCUSSION

Nursing has various reasons and opportunities for having their own business. First, because it is a profession that has an understanding of the needs of the human beings in their integrality and in a contextualized way. Second, nursing has potential and opportunities to explore new social spaces, without the need to submit to the traditional centers of care, where the concept of disease still prevails. And yet, stimulating entrepreneurship is of inevitable relevance since it allows the conquest of new fields and boosts the country’s economic growth⁽¹⁾.

To Backes, Erdmann and Buscher⁽¹⁰⁾ international studies showed that many nurses sought new work alternatives to be free of bureaucracy and limits imposed by traditional institutions of health care.

In the State of Sao Paulo there is the scenario of opening companies by nurses, about 196 in the last decade. This demand can be justified by the market requiring autonomous professionals to work in consulting, with an employment bond as entrepreneurs and also to work in personal development and in home cares, but also for incompatibility in the administration of health services.

This phenomenon aligned with tax cuts for entrepreneurs, which occurred in the last decade, may have contributed to entrepreneurship in Nursing. We highlight that 35% of new businesses fail in the first year of life and 71% cannot reach five years⁽⁷⁾.

It is believed that one way to avoid this scenario and stimulate the development of entrepreneurial nurse is by inserting this discussion in professional training, "being an entrepreneur" involves psychological and behavior factors and attitudes that can be stimulated in students, resulting in the qualification of a differentiated professional. Currently, in Nursing education, schools find it difficult to incorporate proposals to increase the changes in the training of professionals, especially those related to the acquisition, development, assessment of skills and abilities. It is observed that there is no clear definition of the competencies for Nursing education, especially the competencies responsible for the need of the current job market^(11-12).

The study showed that 36% of companies registered by nurses are located in Sao Paulo, which may be related to a large concentration of nurses, but also to the current healthcare market where about 80% of the population consume products and health services monthly. In Brazil, being an entrepreneur is an important factor for the economy, enables the generation of employment and income, generating economic growth and improvement in people's living conditions, but the entrepreneur must identify the real needs of the idealized business, even in health area and only after this measure, become an entrepreneur from the creation of a micro, small or medium company⁽¹³⁾.

The largest number of companies opened by nurses are still micro companies (39%), followed by small companies (8%) but the study showed that a larger contingent had no specification in the registration forms. In this sense, it can be argued that most of the identified companies have a turnover of up to R$240,000.00 per year, passing small companies, which is R$240,000.00 up to R$2.4 million per year⁽¹⁴⁾.

We should also discuss the social purpose of the 196 companies identified, because among the objects identified in this study, few actually are related to nurses. The nurse entrepreneurship faces the creation, management and search market alternatives that aim at human care, based on creativity and innovation in a win-win relationship for both parties⁽¹³⁾.

The nurse as a regulated professional can exercise their activities in their clinics or nursing offices doing nursing consultations, medication administration for prescribed treatments, guidance for self-application of medication, guidance and control of chronic patients, pregnant women, dressings, among other activities. The nurse entrepreneur should also ensure that the assistance reaches the client in a competent, responsible, technically and ethical way⁽¹⁵⁾.

CONCLUSION

From 1990 to 2011, intensification of policies for starting companies in Brazil, stimulating entrepreneurship for both autonomous worker and to those inserted in the professions recognized as employees.

In nursing, this scenario was identified in the State of Sao Paulo, where there was a predominance of companies registered with social purpose of nursing activity, started with invested capital up to R$ 5,000.00, with most owners being registered as nurses in COREN- SP. These companies registered in JUCESP were constituted as micro companies, most being located in Great Sao Paulo and on the coast of the state, areas of high population concentration and also higher concentration of commercial, industrial centers, service providers and great demands of health. Enabling, thus, the viability and sustainability of a nursing companies.

The results of the study revealed that Nursing companies are more present in today's reality. We highlight the registry of 170 (86.7%) companies in the last decade for nursing activity. This increase may be associated with job dissatisfaction, the need for better incomes or even search for new prospects associated with the development of an entrepreneurial profile.

It is a profession on the rise in entrepreneurship practice in the State of Sao Paulo, with the potential and opportunities to explore new fields, without the need to submit only to traditional areas of care, in which, in most cases, diseases are the focus. One must consider training and proper preparation are important ways to stimulate entrepreneurship in Nursing, causing effective changes in the conception of this professionals and enabling in the future, opening of new businesses with nursing activities consistent with social demands and also with the labor market's needs.

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Jan-Feb 2015

History

• Received
  04 Nov 2014
• Accepted
  07 Jan 2015