Sob o domínio da urgência: o trabalho de diretores de hospitais públicos no Rio de Janeiro / Under the rule of urgency: the role of Rio de Janeiro public hospital directors

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2005

RESUMO

This research aims to analyze management practices in public hospitals – general hospitals with emergence service in the city of Rio de Janeiro, under municipal, state and federal administration. Based upon French Psychosociological perspectives for organizational analysis, the study seeks an understanding of the social, intersubjective and unconscious dimensions of such practices. Narratives of hospital directors are the main source of data in this investigation. In terms of methodology, this study adopted the life story approach, understanding public hospitals’ management in a two-fold perspective: as a social process as well as an expression of imaginary processes present in the organization dynamics, which permeate the narratives of the directors interviewed. The directors’ professional history, mainly the processes that led them to taking up this post, was one of the key aspects selected for analysis. Results show the first appointment was usually incidental- characterized by contingency - in a period when formal career or specializations of any kind were not required. Throughout the course of the research, however, seven among the total of eight directors interviewed had already acquired proper specialization in hospital management and a solid experience. Apart from describing their professional histories, the analysis discusses the directors’ managerial practices, focusing both on the main strategies adopted and on views, feelings and meanings attached to the experience of being a hospital director. Key elements under analysis are the possibilities and limits in the process of implementing changes in those hospitals. Their testimonies reveal that directors work under heavy political pressure, insufficient material resources, poor working conditions, and that they are targets of disbelief, defiance and aggressive behaviors in a situation of low governability, all of which are representative of the power structure they try to oppose. From this point of view, the analysis of managerial practices revealed three different patterns. In the first one, there is a glimpse of a possibility of change, in which imaginary elements, that help conjure a vision of the hospital’s future and open paths for building up organizational links, are strengthened. The second style of management practice is characterized by investments in specific projects, which concentrate major efforts. The core of the third model is founded on the dedication to keep the hospital working and is impelled by the imaginary of urgency. In this scenario of urgency, there is no place for strategy, only for action. Imposition of continuous action makes reflection impossible. Inside the hospitals, the extremely deficient work basis and its implications in terms of life and death, brings almost unbearable suffering to staff and directors. The crisis in Rio de Janeiro Public Hospitals has gained, since 2004, unprecedented scope, achieving now the status of a “war”. As a consequence, the urgency model spreads. Hospitals have turned into a space where every sort of violence and depreciation of human life takes place. Attempted changes observed in two of the eight experiences were seriously affected either by the director’s dismissal or by the mounting of a crisis, revealing the weakness of the movement toward change and casting doubt on the possibilities of the public health institutions at the present time.

ASSUNTO(S)

hospitais de emergência psicologia social administração hospitalar hospital administration mudança organizacional hospitals (packaged) intersubjetividade intersubjectivity social psychology organizational change

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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