Violência sofrida por pacientes mulheres sob a perspectiva de profissionais farmacêuticos.

Abstract

Violence against women constitutes a violation of human rights and a historic public health problem. Given the capillarity and accessibility that the work environments of pharmacists obtain, these professionals can play an essential role in identifying and supporting women in situations of violence and in confronting violence. In view of the above, the objective of this study was to analyze the experiences of pharmaceutical professionals in dealing with situations of violence against female patients in their work environments. To this end, a mixed methods research was carried out, based on data from an online survey carried out between September 2021 and March 2022, with professionals registered with the Minas Gerais Regional Pharmacy Council. Answers to the questions were explored: "Have you ever identified a situation of violence against women with a patient who frequents your work environment?"; "Explain a situation of violence that caught your attention the most." Descriptive analysis of the frequency of identification of violence and assessment of associated factors using logistic regression were adopted. For qualitative analyses, content analysis was used with identification of themes, construction of narratives and word clouds. Of the 139 respondents, 30.6% identified situations of violence in their work environments, with psychological (47.6%) and physical (22.8%) violence being the most frequent. In the constructed word cloud, the words “violence”, “fear” and the set of terms referring to the “aggressor” prevailed. Four categories emerged from the content analysis: “Psychological, patrimonial and physical violence from a pharmaceutical perspective”, “From domination over the body to sexual violence”, “The erasure of violence” and “From the experience to the search for overcoming violence”. The results demonstrated that violence is present in the pharmaceutical work environment. Professionals recognized diverse situations of violence, and even more invisible types, such as psychological and property violence, were exemplified. The potential of pharmaceutical professionals and their work environments to provide support in situations of violence is evident, despite the need for their qualifications to do so.