Experience report: caring action for nursing assistants working in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign

INTRODUCTION: In Public Health, vaccination is a great achievement for its benefits, reducing, controlling and eradicating diseases (LIMA; JULIANI; COLICHI; SPAGNULO, 2021). Nursing professionals are, since the beginning, in the front line of the fight against the pandemic of COVID-19. With the beginning of vaccination in Brazil, on January 17, 2021, professionals have performed another great job, that of immunizing the population against the virus (COFEN, 2021). OBJECTIVE: Carry out a care action for nursing assistants in a UBS, promoting their reflection about the importance of the pause in the work process and self-care. METHODOLOGY: This is an experience report carried out in a UBS located in the southern region of São Paulo (SP). The study sample was composed of 07 nursing assistants with a 08-hour workload per day (Monday to Friday) and on weekends, during the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. Those professionals who refused to participate in the developed activities, were on leave, vacation or those who were unavailable at the time of the activities were excluded from the study. Semi-structured interviews were developed by the researchers and applied to the participants as a data collection tool, composed of eight open and multiple choice questions. The project was carried out in partnership with the psychologist of the NASF team of the UBS, with the purpose of a multidisciplinary work. As to the ethical aspects, since this was a description as an experience report, thus, without identifying the participants and the institution, the submission to the Research Ethics Committee (CEP) was not required. However, it is worth noting that all ethical principles were followed according to national research recommendations. DEVELOPMENT: During the interviews, the participants were exposed to relaxing environmental sound, receiving foot scalding with hot water and rock salt, with the intention of reducing edema, relaxing and reducing stress. They also received back, arm, neck, and head massages to relieve tension and promote relaxation. The action was concluded with positive words, dialog about the importance of the break, relaxation, and physical and mental self-care. RESULTS: It was noticed that of 07 participants, 04 have more than 10 years of profession, both with more than a year in the UBS of study, all have lived and had experiences during the vaccination of COVID-19 and of these, only 02 do not continue in vaccination. The main complaints were overload, stress, anger, discouragement, tiredness, body pain, and others. DISCUSSION: To promote, prevent and control diseases, to diagnose, to treat, to follow up, became the main fighter of the coronavirus, thus, emphasis was given to primary prevention strategies, acquiring for itself, a very big responsibility before an extremely fatal, mysterious and dangerous virus. CONCLUSION: The act of taking care of the physical and mental health of the professional facing the vaccination of COVID-19 is something of extreme importance to promote well-being and relaxation, as well as to promote means and managements that help him to face such an overload effectively.