title: [Social representations about occupational risk in the perspective of the health worker].
abstract: We aimed to identify the meanings constructed about occupational risk by health workers through the structural approach to social representation. 220 health professionals from a public hospital in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, participated in this research. The technique of free evocation of words was used and data were examined through an articulated analysis of frequency average and evocation order Results shows that central systems have different compositions in three groups: disease and death for doctors, perforating and danger for nurses and contamination, disease, infection and danger for dentists. The complexity of bond among work and risk suggests that strategies and alternatives of actions might be operationalized with integration of different professional categories and fields of knowledge towards a common objective starting from an interdisciplinary space and expanding the awareness level of these professionals concerning to consequences of their practices to health.
authors: Hospital Walfredo Gurgel e Pronto Socorro Clóvis Sarinho, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. joanaenfa@hotmail.com
authors: Joana D'Arc de Souza
authors: JD
authors: Oliveira
authors: Aurigena Antunes Araújo
authors: AA
authors: Ferreira
authors: Maria do Socorro
authors: Mdo S
authors: Costa Feitosa
authors: Maria Adelaide Silva
authors: MA
authors: Paredes Moreira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D003264:Containment of Biohazards; D003815:Dentists / Q000523:psychology*; D004866:Equipment Contamination; D005260:Female; D005608:Free Association; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006786:Hospitals, Urban; D006801:Humans; D017758:Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D016272:Occupational Health; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D012306:Risk; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012938:Social Perception; D014950:Wounds, Penetrating / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology