Reflections on the Activity Perspective in Hospital Work Permanence Actions During COVID-19

The situation that emerged from recognizing the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 required a university hospital’s efforts to reorganize the work and care activities in this period. This study aims to present actions to support workers’ permanence in the hospital context at work in pandemic times. The development of actions was based on the activity ergonomics and, therefore, recommended recognizing actions in real work situations involving workers directly. The interventions covered 14 sectors, involving 140 workers. During the actions, the team recorded the activities in a field diary to document the care provided and prepared reports with the identified demands, which were organized into five categories: i) information and communication management, ii) the establishment, improvement, or continuous monitoring of protocols, iii) hospital workers’ health care, iv) establishment of collective spaces to refresh and align conducts; and v) adequacy of work conditions and processes. The interventions with hospital workers in the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the exchange of experiences and knowledge between same-sector and inter-sector workers and sharing perspectives regarding work dynamics. The foundation of the actions in activity ergonomics has contributed to increasing the visibility of situations that pre-existed the pandemic and structured a new perspective on health and work in the hospital, recognizing the active participation of workers.