The underlying question in this article relates to the limits and possibilities of care for victims of violence as provided by health services, specifically by emergency departments. The initial problem is that specialized care for these cases requires interdisciplinary and multi-professional action, distinct from that proposed during the biomedical training of health professionals as a whole and especially physicians and nurses. Beginning with an ethnographic study of a public emergency hospital in the city of São Paulo, the article then seeks to analyze the concepts of body and violence adopted by these professionals, underlying their care for bodies injured by violent acts, within the characteristics of these services. The focus is on concepts and practices in a healthcare context characterized by the displacement of subjectivity both in patients and health professionals, illustrated by emergency services, with a discussion on the implications for treatment of victims of violence.
Healthcare practices; biomedicine; care for violence; emergency