Padronização do processo que envolve medicamentos em uma unidade de terapia intensiva neonatal

Abstract

In the current reality of health services, especially public institutions, where resources are limited and the population's health care needs are growing, there is a demand to improve work processes in order to guarantee safe, quality care with lower costs and waste. In this context, this study aimed to standardize, through a flowchart, the process involving medication in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This was a qualitative study, developed through a Convergent Care Survey (CCA); it was carried out in a maternity hospital, a reference for high-risk pregnancies, in the municipality of Natal/RN, and included the participation of 5 nurses and 5 nursing technicians who work in the NICU; the majority of these professionals (80%) have been trained for between 11 and 19 years, and the same percentage have worked in the NICU for between six and ten years. The research began after a favorable opinion from the Ethics and Research Committee (CEP) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and the CEP of the research institution, as well as a letter of consent issued by the latter; in addition to the participants' acceptance, by signing the Informed Consent Form (ICF). The data was collected using a semi-structured interview script and discussions in the convergence groups; the results showed the emergence of two categories: "Contextualizing the process of medication use in the NICU" and "Contextualizing the process of administering medicines in the NICU" with their respective subcategories, which showed the involvement of other stages and professional categories in the process of administering medicines, so it was necessary to broaden the scope of the process in order to draw up a flow for the use of medicines in the neonatal ICU. The product of this study consisted of a flowchart of the desired medication use process in a neonatal ICU, drawn up collectively in the convergence groups, based on the improvement strategies identified, with a view to standardizing this process, which is fragile and unaligned.