Perception of biological risk among nursing workerss

This descriptive, exploratory research with a qualitative approach aimed to identify the workers’ perception of biological risks in their professional practice, and was carried out between January 2008 and January 2009 in a municipality in the State of Paraná. Data collection was achieved through semi-structured interviews, recorded and transcribed, held with 18 nursing workers, observing the criteria of data saturation. Analysis was undertaken by the grouping of similarities and differences presented in the thematic accounts and which revealed three central themes: perceptions about biological risks; technical professional preparation and institutional support and work conditions, which gave rise to six categories. It was concluded that although the workers recognize the risk, nevertheless they do not take into account the possibility of suffering an accident, which contributes to the poor compliance with preventive measures; they desire to be supervised in their activities and indicate administrative aspects as contributing to the failure to comply with preventive measures.