Online Brazilian Journal of Nursing (Dec 2006)

Biosecurity, risk, and vulnerability: reflexion on the process of human living of the health professionals

  • Magda Santos Koerich,
  • Francisca Georgina Macêdo de Souza,
  • Cláudia Regina Lima Duarte da Silva,
  • Luiz Alberto Peregrino Ferreira,
  • Telma Elisa Carraro,
  • Denise Elvira Pires de Pires

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 3

Abstract

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The process of human life is surrounded by the risk, that can be interpreted as a concept relatively complex and, many times, not perceived for the individuals in all their dimensions of life. Inserted in the services of health, either in the hospital environment or the basic attention, the health professionals can be exposed to multiple and varied risks, caused by chemical, physical, biological, psychosocial and ergonomic agents. It is in the workplaces that at the same time it is clear the vulnerability as human beings, we overvalue our capacities in situations of risk. In our symbology we believe that we are invisible and protected by an unsurmountable protective layer. The text presents a reflection on biological risk and vulnerability of the health professionals in the context of the process of human life. The selfcare as possibility for reduction of the vulnerability and the risks we usually are submitted, and to discuss on the different dimensions of the quality of life. For health professionals the, the idea of less risk is connected with the idealized notion of a perfect life and this “perfection” is related with the concept of quality of life in a dynamic process between individual behaviors and the collective building of the perception of risk.

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