Nursing perspectives on perinatal mortality: contextualization and care

Perinatal mortality is one of the serious problems that afflict public and private health in Brazil. Its impact is differentiated in each region, but the mortality rate is a general cause of concern and calls for the need to investigate its causes and ways of minimizing it. This study aimed to identify the attitudes of nurses regarding perinatal death and understand the perspective of nurses on the possibilities of reducing perinatal death. In order to achieve this goal, it was necessary to understand the nurse's role in tertiary care and in the multiprofessional team in reducing perinatal death, identify the theoretical position regarding the topic, and verify if theory and practice are allied in the analysis of the data collected. After a bibliographical, qualitative, and basic review and using interviews, the technique of content analysis based on the work of Bardin was used. We interviewed 19 nurses who worked in hospital care; of these 17 were obstetrical nurses and 2 neonatologist nurses. Registry Units were selected and, from this, context units were enumerated and verified. It was possible to perceive as results that the majority of the nurses were aware of the weaknesses of the health system, the lack of multiprofessional and interdisciplinary work, the scarcity of resources invested in physical, human and technological structure, among other items. It was also emphasized that there is still a lack of capacity for the practice of Public Policy protocols as well as the relative lack of knowledge of many of its bases and the fragility of multiprofessional work.