Relationship network at a mobile urgent care service unit: analysis of a work team.

INTRODUCTION

Professionals at the Mobile Urgent Care Service (Serviço de Atendimento Móvel de Urgência - SAMU) face extreme situations which pose high psychological demands.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate networks of relationships among employees of SAMU-Ceará, in Northeastern Brazil.

METHODS

Case study of qualitative nature in which we conducted semi-structured interviews with SAMU-Ceará staff. To draw the relationship network, we first interviewed three professionals including physicians and nurses. Based on their narratives, we interviewed two further employees named by the former. We used program Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires (iRaMuTeQ) for textual analysis of the narratives obtained. Structural network characteristics, such as size and density, were analyzed with software UCINET 6.123 and NetDraw 2.38.

RESULTS

The interviewees had worked at the service for one year at least. The connections identified based on the interviews evidenced interrelationship between networks involving the interviewees. The links found were weak and unarticulated, even though two interviewees worked in the same department. Discourse analysis yielded three classes: 1) teamwork characteristics and peculiar ways to execute work; 2) relational and subjective aspects centered on management; and 3) nature of the service delivered.

CONCLUSIONS

The social networks at SAMU-Ceará represent a set of workers who establish mutual relationships to satisfy the demands and needs of service users in an integrated manner while attempting to respect the knowledge and autonomy of each member. Nevertheless, the networks evidenced conflict which is a cause of mental suffering at work.