Abstract
Objective
to describe, from the perspective of nurses and physicians, the eases and hindrances of referrals in an Emergency Care Unit.
Method
a descriptive, qualitative study, carried out in an Emergency Care Unit in a city of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Seven nurses and 23 physicians participated. Data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Discourse of the Collective Subject technique.
Results
the eases involved: having specialized reference services; patient severity; care in “zero vacancy”; good relationship among professionals of the emergency services and empathy. Among the hindrances were: difficult contact by telephone with hospitals and their overcrowding; difficulty in getting transport, especially for patients with stable clinical situation and the lack of ambulance from the municipality.
Conclusion and implications for the practice
the referral facilities potentiate the attendance to urgencies, however, the hindrances, referring to hospital vacancy and transport, can compromise the integrality and continuity of care, requiring improvements in network health care.
Keywords:
Health Services Research; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Emergency Medical Services; Continuity of Patient Care; Nursing