Structural Analysis of Social Representations of COVID-19 Among Health Professionals

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions, particularly among healthcare professionals who have faced drastic changes in their work routines, increased exposure to risk, the precariousness of services, and experiences of loss and anxiety. This study aimed to analyze the structure of social representations of COVID-19 among health professionals in Ceara, located in Northeastern Brazil. A qualitative study was conducted using the Theory of Social Representations and included nursing professionals (nurses, nursing technicians, and assistants), physicians, and physical therapists who were 18 years of age or older. The sample consisted of 1317 participants who were selected using convenience sampling. Due to restrictive measures, data collection was carried out remotely through a questionnaire created using Google Forms. Out of the 1317 participants, 737 (55.5%) were nurses, 191 (14.4%) were nursing technicians, 254 (19.1%) were physicians, and 145 (11%) were physical therapists. Additionally, 1123 (84.6%) of the participants were women, with a mean age of 34 +/- 8.9 years. A total of 6635 words were elicited during the study, with 1316 different evocations. The central core of the social representations was composed of the terms "fear," "anxiety," and "anguish." The similarity tree analysis revealed that "fear" (n = 802) served as the organizing structure, with 18 associated terms and five cores: "death" (n = 502), "sadness" (n = 203), "anguish" (n = 185), "anxiety" (n = 171), and "insecurity" (n = 144). The structural analysis of the social representations of COVID-19 among health professionals indicated that fear, anxiety, and anguish formed the central axis, highlighting the prevalence of negative emotions. This finding was supported by the presence of terms such as death, isolation, sadness, insecurity, and pain in the first periphery of the representation.