Abstract
This research aimed to investigate the specifities of the work of intensive care psychologists, analyzing aspects of their professional routines, difficulties and potential, major interventions with patients, families and healthcare teams, and also investigate their training and how it affects the professional actions that have been explored nowadays. The data was collected through a sociodemographic questionnaire and a semistructured interview. Seven intensive care psychologists were interviewed, active in two hospitals in Porto Alegre-RS, both in care units to adult patients, and in areas such as pediatric and neonatal. Information obtained from the interviews was subjected to content analysis from which emerged some topics for the subsequent interpretation of the results. From this analysis, a shortage in Psychology courses that enables students to the specifics of performance in healthcare and its role in multi-professional teams in the current Brazilian context was perceived. In addition, the survey also highlighted the need to adapt the techniques that these pofessionals already used in clinical care, both in terms of psychological assessment as in the care to patients and family and group interventions. The lack of studies on Intensive Psychology was overt, highlighting the need for more research in this area.
Keywords:
Hospital psychology; intensive care; multidisciplinary teams; Psychology graduation; ICU