Occupational health nurses: interdisciplinary experience in occupational health

Objective: to analyze the relationship of occupational health nurses with the other members of the Specialized Service in Safety Engineering and Occupational Medicine (SESMT) and characterize joint actions of these professionals in occupational health. Method: qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study with 34 professionals of seven companies from the South Macroregion of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Interviews and observations were conducted for content analysis of Bardin. Results: the SESMTs are multidisciplinary and intersectoral workers. Nurses have working relations of an interpersonal, technical/legal, and management of logistics/organizational nature, influenced by the technical division of work and by the division in the work environment of the staff, which distances areas, generates conflicts, and fragments the actions of the service. Conclusion: SESMT faces challenges to develop a work befitting their legal objectives, once staff and companies need to understand the importance of interdisciplinarity for the success of actions on the workers' health and safety.