Systematic mapping of the scientific production of nursing in the context of COVID-19
Creators: name: Gatto, Thamires
name: Yamamura, Mellina
name: de Melo Sérgio, Matheus
name: Carasek, Vinicius
Publisher: name: Open Science Framework
Year: 2022
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences

description: Nursing, as well as in other pandemics, is ahead and is indispensable for the fight against COVID-19, since it centralizes many functions, knowledges and experiences. However, although more than half of the health professionals are composed of nursing professionals, there is a lack of this class, since the countries go through a heterogeneous distribution of these workers (WHO, 2020). For this reason, some continents are harmed in their health systems, due to the shortage of nurses, mainly in the countries of Africa, Southeastern Asia, Eastern Mediterranean and some regions of Latin America. Moreover, there is an aging of this working class in 18 countries, with emphasis on the USA and Europe (WHO, 2020). In Brazil, the area of nursing is composed of two million professionals (divided between auxiliaries, technicians and nurses), however, as occurs all over the world, the nurses are unevenly distributed across the country, with emphasis on the concentration in the Southeastern region, causing a deficit of these workers in many territories, such as in the states of North and Northeast (SILVA; MACHADO, 2020). As a result, the services of Brazil’s Unified Health System (SUS - Sistema Único de Saúde) may be harmed, since nursing is present in all organizational structures of the health system, such as hospitals, Basic Health Units (UBS - Unidade Básica de Saúde), Emergency Care Units (UPA - Unidade de Pronto Atendimento) and so on; besides participating in the management and implementation of programs, such as the Family Health Strategy (ESF - Estratégia Saúde na Família), the Mobile Emergency Care Service (SAMU - Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência), the control of immunization and endemic diseases and so on. Moreover, there is a craving for learning on the part of these professionals, given that, according to a survey carried out recently, 80% of the nurses took some graduate course and, also, 78,1% of the technicians and auxiliaries intend to study the undergraduate course (SILVA; MACHADO, 2020). Therefore, there needs to be a growth of this working class of 8% per year to prevent shortage of nurses foreseen for 2030. That being said, it is clear the need for guarantees of quality and protection of the work of nurses, to make sure that they can meet primary demands of health; and for greater influence of nursing on political issues concerning health, in order to achieve demands and care for nurses and more investment in the professional training and qualification of this working class (WHO, 2020). This would be possible through improvements in education and greater involvement in research and technologies, bearing in mind its extensive experience and range of action, aspects that can contribute to science (WHO, 2020); given that, according to Frota et al. (2020), even with all the difficulties and devaluation that this profession experiences, there is a progress of nursing in the production of research, which is very important for the facing of a pandemic moment, such as the present. With all that said, it is urgent that the problem-solving capacity of nursing gains prominence by the day, and one of the ways to emphasize this potential is the mapping of its scientific production and the widely positive effects when there are nursing professionals with high critical, scientific and technological potential and that can embrace the social diversities of our planet with equity and universality. FROTA, Mirna Albuquerque et al. Mapeando a formação do enfermeiro no Brasil: desafios para atuação em cenários complexos e globalizados. Ciência &amp; Saúde Coletiva, Rio de Janeiro, v. 25, n. 1, p. 25-35, jan. 2020. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232020251.27672019. Acesso em: 5 dez. 2020. SILVA, Manoel Carlos Neri da; MACHADO, Maria Helena. Sistema de Saúde e Trabalho: desafios para a Enfermagem no Brasil. Ciência &amp; Saúde Coletiva, Rio de Janeiro, v. 25, n. 1, p. 7-13, jan. 2020. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232020251.27572019. Acesso em: 5 dez. 2020. WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO). State of the world's nursing 2020: investing in education, jobs and leadership. Genebra: WHO, 2020. 144 p. Disponível em: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240003279. Acesso em: 20 maio 2020.