CONTEXT OF HEALTH PROFESSIONALS DURING THE PANDEMIC IN THE RIBEIRA VALLEY

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak that occurred in March 2020 overloaded the public and private health system in the country, exponentially increasing the number of cases of hospitalizations and deaths. A document prepared by the Synthesis of Social Indicators (SIS) corroborates this scenario, presenting an analysis of the living conditions of the Brazilian population in 2022 in which it states an increase of 97.6% in deaths caused by the virus between the years 2020 and 2021. Health professionals who worked on the front line in the fight against the disease directly suffered the impacts of the pandemic, as exemplified by the growth in the rates of Flu-like Syndrome (GS), with 650,456 cases reported in November 2021, of which 23.6% were confirmed for Covid-19 (Ministry of Health, 2021, p. 44). In addition, according to the same document released by the Federal Government, most of those affected were nursing technicians/assistants (29.8%), nurses and the like (16.9%) and doctors (10.8%). Furthermore, the mental health of such professionals has become a topic of discussion, as Da Silva et al. (2022, p.3) argue that scenarios of work overload, overcrowding of work environments, constant interpersonal relationships, and other factors can directly influence the progress of Burnout Syndrome. Based on this scenario, this research aimed to investigate the mental health status of these professionals working in the Ribeira valley before and during the pandemic, as well as the possible reasons that influenced this context. To this end, a questionnaire was prepared through Google Forms and applied to 70 research participants. There was a worsening in the mental health status of these professionals compared to the period before the pandemic, and it was also found that most respondents developed some mental illness resulting from the social context, especially stress and anxiety.