Health and Technology: Worker in Focus

Abstract

Introduction: The intensification of technological and scientific advances is a contemporary reality and, therefore, some reflection about the impacts this process has on health professionals is required. Objective: To reflect
about the incorporation of hardware technologies in a highly complex public health institution, overcoming apparent and immediate understanding and giving voice to health professionals. Method: Semi-structured interview was adopted with the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) workers, who deal in their daily lives with these new technologies. Results: It was possible to verify, from the workers’ narratives and their analysis, the contradictory character that technology assumes in the capitalist context, since despite its importance, it also brings negative aspects that impact the worker-patient relationship and even the worker’s health. Conclusion: The hegemonic and immediate trend present in the bourgeois society is to think of scientific and technological advances as undoubtedly positive and that in themselves will benefit society, decontextualizing and depoliticizing these innovations, especially when focused to health, as in general, they have the potential to diagnose and cure various diseases. However, the contradiction between technological development in health and the capitalist mode of production was revealed. Despite the potential benefit to health, it also brings negative impacts for the health professional.