Abstract
Objective:
Identify the prevalence of occupational accidents among nursing professionals working in critical units of an emergency service and understand the professional experience among the injured professionals.
Methods:
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 75 professionals, in two consecutive stages. A quantitative analysis was performed by descriptive statistics, and the participants' statements were processed in the IRaMuTeQ software, and analyzed according to the hierarchical descending classification. The findings were based on the collective subject discourse method.
Results:
The overall prevalence of accidents was 26.7%. Of these, 72.2% involved sharp materials and blood was the main biological agent involved in 84.2% of the accidents. Three classes were defined: "Experiencing an occupational accident"; "Post-exposure conduct" and "Occupational accident prevention".
Conclusion:
A high rate of injured professionals was observed, with a higher prevalence among those at a technical level. The experience of suffering an accident seems to be closely related to moments (before, after and during), causes, consequences and feelings.
Keywords:
Occupational risks; Occupational health; Accident prevention; Nursing
