Configuração das relações de poder em uma central de material esterilizado

Abstract

In the context of hospital health practices historically marked by the hegemony of medical knowledge and care practices provided directly to the patient, the Sterile Material Center (CME) presents itself as a particular sector in the way health is produced. CME practices aim to prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), articulating science, technology, safety and quality, through the work of the nursing team. The literature on CME practices, still in its infancy, points to many barriers to the implementation of good practices in this sector. In this way, they raise questions about which factors interfere with CME practices and make this sector a little-known and sometimes undervalued place in the hospital context. Analyzing practices involves understanding how relationships between individuals are organized and how arrangements are established and accepted at a given time. From this perspective, Michel Foucault's philosophical theoretical framework makes it possible to understand how relationships are configured through a game between knowledge and power and mark practices. The objective of the study was to understand the configuration of daily nursing practices at the sterile material center, from the perspective of the knowledge-power relationships that develop in the daily life of this unit. The methodology used was a qualitative case study. The study setting was the CME of Santa Casa de Juiz de Fora – MG, and the subjects were 18 professionals from the sector's nursing team. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and subjected to discourse analysis based on Foucault. Three analytical categories emerged. In the first category “The CME as the heart of the hospital/“what the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't feel””, an analysis was made of the configuration of the architectural power device and the relationship with the feeling of invisibility. In the second category, “The panopticism constituted by contemporary communication technologies”, new technologies functioning as a surveillance and control device in the CME were discussed. In the third category “CME: Power machinery” the power devices found in the sector that place the body in a docilization machinery were analyzed. In the three categories, we sought to understand the configuration of power relations and how they mark care practices in CME. The study made it possible to understand how power relations guide subjectivities and shape practices.