Social representations of violence against women in care practices of healthcare professionals

Abstract

The health professionals are on the front line of care for women in situation of violence and can assist in the planning and implementation of more effective public policies. The objective of the paper is to analyze the representations of health professionals regarding violence against women, seeking to identify whether prejudice and gender stereotypes compromise care actions. The study is exploratory and qualitative and carried out semi-structured interviews involving 15 health professionals who work in urgent and emergency care units in a medium-sized municipality in the South of Brazil. The narratives were interpreted in the light of feminist and gender theories, using content analysis. It was verified the unpreparedness of professionals to deal with the issue of gender violence, little knowledge of legislation that protects women and failures in the communication network between the health, social assistance and public security sectores, depriving the multidisciplinar approach operated in this type of service. It is important to promote practices in the filed of prevention and health promotion, moving away from the biomedical model, centered on curative and hospital-centric ideas, demanding from public policies and health professionals actions that modify the living conditions of women in situation of violence, bringing the perspective of human rights and social justice.