Biosafety in the praxis of nursing personnel during and after the pandemic: a systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: the health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus affected not only the population, but also highlighted the deficiencies and strengths of the health system worldwide. Hospital biosafety protocols and standards had to be activated to protect health professionals, among whom were nursing staff.Objective: to characterize the biosafety conditions during the professional practice of nursing staff before and after COVID-19.Methods: a study with a qualitative approach was carried out, based on a systematic review, whose method was the historical-logical one. The databases used in the search process were PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, from which 26 articles from indexed journals were obtained.Results: 61,53 % of the documents reviewed were published in English and 38,46 % in Spanish. In addition, Scopus was the database with the greatest number of publications with 34,61 %, Scopus-PubMed-WoS followed it with 15,38 %, and PubMed-Scopus with 11,53 %. The characterizing elements identified were the biosafety protocol, physical and psychological repercussions, and improvement opportunities in biosafety.Conclusions: the situation experienced by health personnel - nurses and physicians - during the pandemic was characterized by a shortage of biosafety supplies and care, little experience in implementing biosafety protocols, and a lack of training programs. Therefore, measures must be taken to train both the public and this professional sector, as well as to update these skills continuously