STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE SOCIAL REPRESENTATIONS ON COVID-19 AMONG ASSISTANCE NURSES

ABSTRACT Objective to analyze the structure of the social representations on Covid-19 among assistance nurses. Method a study with a qualitative approach, based on the Theory of Social Representations, with structural analysis, conducted with 178 nurses from Ceara, Brazil, from May to June 2020. The evocations were processed with the EVOC 2000® software, creating the four-house chart. IRAMUTEQ® was used to produce the similarity tree. Results the potential central nucleus was composed of “fear” and “isolation”, with “death” constituting the first periphery; “sadness”, “pain”, and “uncertainty” in the second periphery; and “dyspnea”, “anguish”, and “pandemic”, in the contrast zone. Conclusion at the first moment, the representations were constructed around negative feelings and emotions. New studies are indicated, with the adoption of other analysis methods to confront the findings.