Double working hours in nursing: difficulties faced in the labor market and daily work^a

Abstract

Objective  To understand, through basic lexicography, the most frequent words expressed by nurses on the experience of working double shifts.

Method  A qualitative research study carried out with 30 nurses working double shifts, captured by the snowball technique, between January and March 2019, in the city of Eunápolis, state of Bahia, Brazil. Data was obtained through a semi-structured interview and processed with the aid of the Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires (IRAMUTEQ®) software. From the word cloud, lexical analysis took place.

Result  The most frequent words identified in the corpus were “no” and “we”.

Conclusion and implications for practice  The many “nos” evoked by the participants point out that the experience is marked by negativity, restrictions and suffering, a fact that puts the health of the “we” at risk, that is, of this professional group, their social relationships, and even the quality of the assistance provided to the customer. Understanding this context is essential to produce reflections that contribute to the creation of public policies aimed at valuing and protecting nurses, as well as to reinforce the indispensable need for Nursing to strengthen as a working class.

Keywords:
Nursing; Work Hours; Job Market; Occupational Health; Qualitative research; Software