Working conditions and , sickness of nursing workers in Brazil

Introduction
The contemporaneous work has introduced changes in production processes that ultimately impact upon the health of workers. In particular, the work of nursing, the introduction of new technologies for health care, scarce resources and growing demand of health services has meant the intensification of work’s rhythm and generating other adverse conditions to maintain the health of workers. Nursing workers have been exposed to several kids of workloads as biological, chemical, physical, mechanical, physiological and psychic. This exposure is determinant of strain processes and a characteristic profile of diseases of these workers.

Methods
The study was descriptive of quantitative approaching, based on the social and historic determinants of health-illness process. The setting was seven university hospitals of the five regions of Brazil. One year of data of health problems related to nursing work were collected by an on line system – Health Surveillance System of the Nursing Workers (SIMOSTE).The project was approved by an Ethics and Research Committee, and the authorization of data collection was provided by hospitals.

Results
The health problems related to work for all settings represented 890 notifications. Data analysis highlight the health problems occured by exposure to workloads, such as: physiological (51.1%), psychic (43.6%), mechanical (34.0%) and biological (28,7%). The main health problems reported were musculoskeletal disorders (24.7%), consequences of external causes (16.5%), respiratory diseases (10%) and mental and behavioral disorders (9%). The health problems reported were responsible for 8,081 days lost from work in one year.

Discussion
Analys data highlight the need to monitor the health of workers and the urgent need for changes in the processes of nursing work, particularly on ways of work organization. The health problems and their consequences imply the reduction of the workforce and improvement of turnover, and imply the quality of nursing care. Also, these consequences imply huge charge to the society.