O trabalho sob fogo cruzado e as formas de precarização no exercício profissional na saúde: o cotidiano profissional de assistentes sociais no serviço de pronto atendimento em tempos de Covid-19

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the relationships and working conditions of the social worker's professional practice in the Emergency Care Unit (UPA) of Parnamirim/ RN, during the pandemic period, identifying the consequences of precarious work, social policies and of the capital offensive associated with the Covid-19 health crisis that are reflected in daily professional life. The research was carried out under the guidance of historical-dialectical materialism, whose methodological path started from a bibliographical research, based on a literature review; through documentary research, by consulting legislation, the guidelines of the CFESS-CRESS set and institutional documents; and in the field, when applying a questionnaire with open and closed questions, considering the appropriation of qualitative-quantitative research. The study revealed that the precariousness of work and social policies, especially health policy linked to the pandemic situation, affected the objective and subjective conditions of the working class, and, consequently, of social workers, since they also are part of the working class. In the conclusive approaches, the limits and professional possibilities are highlighted in the daily professional life of social workers who work at the UPA of Parnamirim/RN, considering the lack of physical structure consistent with regulations and reality. of the municipality, given the expansion of outsourcing in the institution, which has repercussions on working relationships and conditions and has implications for collective work. In addition to the subsidiary character that the profession carries in the socio-technical division of labor, which comes from the historical process due to the condition of salaried worker and the contradictory relationship with the car models that permeate health policy in Brazil, which reinforced during the pandemic the “exceptional nature” of the actions and activities carried out in the face of public calamity, in the face of action under fire, as shown by the research data. On the other hand, it was relevant that resistance and collective confrontations towards the professional ethical-political project can contribute to minimizing and imposing barriers to impasses for a critical-reflective professional exercise, towards the quality of services provided to the population. In this sense, the defense of ethical and technical conditions, mediated by professional competencies and attributions, stands as a professional compass, collectively articulated with the category, the representative bodies, and the defense of social rights, which are in dispute daily and are affected by the condition’s socio-historical, political, and economic issues, added to the social and class struggle in defense of a new sociability.