Abstract
Diverse workers are subject to accidents involving biological material, which cause not only physical injury but, above all, psychological damage. Occupational coping is the individual’s attempt to adapt to stressful situations in the workplace. The study analyzed the coping strategies of health professionals who suffered accidents involving biological material. It adopted a descriptive method, with a qualitative approach, carried out by using semi-structured interviews with ten health professionals working in hospitals and who had recently suffered accidents involving exposure to biological material, selected with a snowball sampling strategy. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and organized, and for the analysis of the content, the technique of content analysis proposed by Bardin was used. The results showed that the most common coping strategy for the workers surveyed was control by seeking a change of attitudes regarding work routines and technical improvements. The methodology also identified other strategies, such as self-blaming and social interaction. These findings point to the importance of integrated and continuous workplace training as a way to prevent and manage workplace accidents.
Keywords:
Workplace Accident; Health Work; Adaptive Behavior; Occupational Coping