A (re)construção da identidade profissional de enfermeiras migrantes

Abstract

The migration of nurses is an important phenomenon with varied implications, both for the places of origin and for the destinations. Individual, social and professional factors influence the decision to migrate these workers and the experiences lived by them directly reflect on the construction of their personal and professional identities. The objective of this study was to analyze the decision of nurses who have an employment relationship in a public teaching institution to migrate to another institution in the regions of Brazil. This is an analytical study, with a qualitative approach, mediated by Thematic Oral History. Nurses working in four university hospitals managed by the Brazilian Company of Hospital Services who migrated from these units as well as the other way around were invited to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and their analysis through the categories resulting from the dialogue between the authors studied in the theoretical framework on the theme. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of UFRN with the Opinion number 6.278.154 and CAAE 70566623.5.0000.5537. Thirteen interviews were carried out respecting their availability and preference regarding format. Therefore, there were eleven face-to-face interviews and two through the Google Meet platform. There was a predominance of female employees, aged between 32 and 48 years old. Regarding academic degrees, all reported having at least two Lato Sensu postgraduate degrees and only three reported Stricto Sensu postgraduate degrees at the Master's level. The initial crisis in the insertion of the labor market of a capitalist society, with its frustrations of unemployment, precarious ties in cooperatives and the lack of recognition in society, stimulated the search for professional qualification as a means of getting out of that reality. This qualification, at all times, was filled with expectations due to the change in the environment in which they were inserted, which influenced the decision of the first migration of eleven of the thirteen collaborators in the study. However, the personal and professional maturation after their migratory experiences promoted a new identity crisis: the search for identity for themselves. The nurses in the study not only wanted social identity, but also the pleasure of belonging, and thus, of the eleven collaborators who migrated for the first time away from their states, eight decided to migrate once again to be close to their essence, promoting the (re)construction of their professional identities with a new beginning, new environments, new friendships and new work processes. It was found in the research that the professional identity is changeable, directly linked to the individual identity and that when they find their new belonging, through their choices and not only for an economic reason, the employees develop their work activities with satisfaction and pleasure. As nurses, this directly reflects not only on their professional careers, but also on their personal lives and the entire society that depends on their health care.