Emotional waste: nurses who work in the hospital environment’s depositions

Abstract

With this study we tried to learn about the resources used to reduce nurses’ emotional waste proceeding from excessive work load, particularly those resultant of psychological stress and caused by long tension situations during the nursing practice. The study was developed with post-graduate students from a public university from 2003 to 2004. The database was collected by means of semi-structures interviews with 9 nurses. The results indicate 3 thematical categories: contributory conditions for the emotional waste; internal mechanisms of facing the emotional waste; and health problems. We got to the conclusion that it is necessary to reflect about this subject, considering the importance given to the nurse’s health in hospital units, once the emotional wastes are considered predominant factors of interference for the nurse’s health and welfare in the hospital environment.