The waiting room: A possibility of intervention in Workers' Health

Abstract

Introduction: This study reported the experience of the reconfiguration of the waiting room of a Workers' Health Care public service linked to a University Hospital. Objective: The actions taken had the objective of transforming the waiting time for the development of health educational interventions, fostering the reflection on the work and the health-illness process by favoring users interactions. The intention was also to enhance their protagonism towards their health and to transcend the assistance actions offering a more diverse set of courses of action in the service. Method: The waiting-room project was structured in two phases: literature review on the worker´s health and the waiting room and development and implementation of the reconfiguration proposal. Results: In this phase, the starting point was the collecting of opinions about the waiting room that was held by structured interviews with users, companions, employees, and interns of the service. In 52 people interviewed, 71.2% answered that they would positively change something in the waiting room. The final elaborated proposal considered the possibilities of the environment and the service and the suggestions of the interviewees and the purposes of the waiting room reconfiguration. There has been a change in the layout of the chairs and discussion groups with users were held. Conclusion: This process is expected to highlight the potential of the waiting room and encourage the use of this space for the development of actions in other workers´ health services.