Ambiente, condições de trabalho e saúde docente em uma universidade pública brasileira

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the environment, working conditions and health of faculty in a Brazilian public university. For this purpose, it was proposed: i) identify in the literature the main issues related to the environment, working conditions and health in the teaching profession; (ii) examine the methods and instruments most used to assess these issues; iii) investigate the ergonomic and welfare demands of the respondents; iv) to verify the possible associations of harmful discomforts in relation to personal characteristics, circumstances and workplace. This is a cross-sectional study, with 141 teaching professionals in the institution. In addition to the traditional pre and post-textual elements, the theoretical framework, as well as the results and their discussion are presented through two linked articles, the first theoretical-conceptual and the second applied. The literature review provided the systematic gathering and synthesis of studies that address the themes: environment, working conditions and faculty health. This stage assisted in the subsidization of bibliographic material for the maturation and concretization of applied research. In the second article, we investigated the main ergonomic and health demands of teachers, as well as sociodemographic, environmental, perceptions and relationships at work. To identify the body regions affected by pain, as well as its intensity, we used the Diagram of Painful Areas, where the regions of the body pointed with discomfort or pain by the majority of teachers were: cervical, neck, upper regions, central and lower back, right and left shoulder and right knee. It is also noted that 97.9% of teachers have some pain or discomfort in at least one region of the body. The psychological distress, indicated by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) resulted in 35.5% of respondents have psychological distress. The voice quality of life, estimated by the Voice-Related Quality of Life (VRQOL) protocol, showed high average score for the participants, 95.4 (scale of 0 to 100). From statistical tests, factors significantly associated with these two measurements were identified. For the GHQ-12 the associated characteristics were: gender, presence of noise and temperature in the room, consideration of suggestions, relationship with colleagues and bosses, hoarseness or weakness in the voice after a day of work, intensity of discomfort or pain in the right shoulder, neck, cervical, lower region of the back and left shoulder. For VRQOL, the associated characteristics were: age, number of children, length of institution, cleaning of rooms, relationship with students, hoarseness or weakness in the voice after a day's work, disappearance or sudden change in tone of voice, temporary loss of voice, worsening voice quality over the years, consultation with a specialist because of voice, interference of auditory capacity in the activity, intensity of discomfort or pain in the right shoulder, neck and left shoulder. It was concluded that this dissertation will be useful for the reflection and pointing of ways that promote the quality of life and health at work, and that can provide subsidies for teachers, managers and thinkers of public policies of human resources in the institution.