Chemical Profile of Elements in the Stingless Bee Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides (Hymenoptera: Apidae).

Bees represent efficient bioindicators of environmental contamination, including elements that can accumulate in both biomes and bee-derived products. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate the presence of metallic elements over the body surface of Melipona quadrifasciata anthidioides workers from rural and urban areas from Caatinga in Brazil. Using SEM/XEDS (scanning electron microscope/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) identified magnesium (Mg), aluminum (Al), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), arsenic (As), molybdenum (Mo), cadmium (Cd), barium (Ba), and lead (Pb) in the corbiculae of bees.

Factors associated with use of personal proactive equipment among community health agents in a coastal municipality in northern São Paulo, Brazil.

Background: Community health agents (CHAs) are a part of Family Health Strategy multidisciplinary teams, and their function is to develop individual and collective health promotion, recovery and preventive actions, including household visits. Their work exposes CHAs to hazards in the work environment, therefore, using personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential.

Aims: To draw the sociodemographic and occupational profile of CHAs and investigate associations with use of PPE.

Antihypertensive treatment adherence in workers of a General Hospital.

Objective: to assess antihypertensive treatment adherence and associated factors in workers from a hospital.

Method: cross-sectional research, consisting of 108 workers who self-reported as being hypertensive. Associations between sociodemographic, work and health variables were assessed regarding adherence.

[Workloads and strain process in Community Health Agents].

Objective: To identify the workloads present in the work activities of community health agents (CHAs) and the resulting strain processes.

Method: A descriptive, exploratory, cross-sectional and quantitative study conducted with 137 CHAs. Data were collected through a questionnaire and interview guided by the health surveillance software called SIMOSTE (Health Monitoring System of Nursing Workers), following the ethical codes of the current law.

[Being a nursing worker in a sterile processing department: a phenomenological approach].

This study investigated the experience of nursing workers at the Sterile Processing Department (SPD) of a hospital in Londrina, State of Paraná, using the qualitative phenomenological method. Ten interviews were conducted. The analysis of the discourses made possible to build four categories: 1) How the individual came to be part of the department - describes the various ways one may come to work in the unit; 2) Speaking about the work involved in the SPD - describes the turnover, the multiple simultaneous tasks that must be performed and the preference for certain areas; the closed atmosphere; the technological evolution; and the interpersonal relationships; 3) Dealing with difficulties - describes the daily routine; the repetitive and monotonous work; the physical exhaustion; the lack of supplies and equipment; the adjustment period; and the under-appreciation, discrimination, and ignorance of other health workers about their work; 4) Overcoming the obstacles - reveals that through greater awareness of their role in the Department these professionals are able to recognize their importance.

[Teaching scientific investigation methods at a private university].

The purpose of this descriptive, exploratory study was to analyze, with focus on the referential of the communicative action paradigm, what were listed as ease and difficulties by fifteen students of specialization courses in Nursing concerning the teaching process of the discipline of Scientific Investigation Methods. The categories expressed as ease and difficulties regarding the discipline's content, the elaboration of the research project and its development were analyzed in accordance with the standardized types of communicative action. After the analysis there could be noticed an emergence of elements at different development levels interpreted in a sequence of communication forms that show no commitment with innovation or change of the teaching process, demonstrating the disturbances of the consensus in this process.

[Female nurses and the osteomuscular disturbances related to their work].

This study investigates the relation between female nurses and osteomuscular disturbances associated with their work. It is clear from the study that Nursing professionals are exposed to a number of unfavorable conditions in their working environment. Predominant complaints are related to the osteomuscular system, which affects mostly females due not only to the biological characteristics of women, but also because of the uneven distribution of work between genders that prevails nowadays.

The experience of a woman working in nursing suffering from De Quervain's disease.

This is a case study with a phenomenological approach on the experience of a woman who works in nursing and suffers from the de Quervain's disease, an osteo-muscular disorder related to working conditions. This study aimed to understand what means to be a woman working in nursing and suffering from an osteo-muscular disorder related to working conditions through a worker of the Material and Sterilization Center of a private hospital. The philosophical referential from Martin Heidegger was used for the comprehensive analysis of the statement in question.

[Seroprevalence of Chagas disease infection in the State of Piauí, 2002].

To evaluate the epidemiological situation of Chagas disease infection in the State of Piauí, Brazil, and its relationships with age, gender, blood transfusion and spontaneous abortion, a serological survey was performed. A random sample of 36,399 inhabitants of rural zones was examined between August and December 2002. Chagas disease infection was defined by the indirect immunofluorescence test, with identification of anti-Trypanosoma cruzi antibodies in blood samples collected on filter paper.

[The teaching of the perioperatory nursing assistance in undergraduate courses in nursing].

In the present study, the authors describe the reality of the perioperatory nursing assistance, analyzing and outlining its trends among professors of undergraduate courses in nursing that teach this subject. Perioperatory nursing assistance, as a process carried out by nursing professionals, in a specific phase of attention to the patient prior to the anesthetic-surgical procedure, involves strategies and orientations that are expressed in the nurse's praxis. In this study, the teaching of perioperatory nursing assistance, as a dynamic activity of the actions of the professors of Nursing in the Surgical Center, developed in a collective process, emerges as a ritual praxis of the system's realm, of the instrumental technical reason, moving away from the consensual understanding, from the communicative reason and from the encouragement to the alternatives directed towards the social/emancipatory praxis.

[The pre-operative nursing assessment of patients by the operating room nurses].

The objective of this survey is to verify how many São Paulo hospitals which employ operating room nurses, proceed in having pre-operative nursing assessment of patients. This procedure is essencial to assure a continuous nursing assistance and basic to patient-needs centered nursing care. Results found show that the majority of nurses although knowing about the importance of the procedure, do not implement it.