The relationship between human vulnerability and health care: a study with professionals and students in the health area

DOI: 10.15343/0104-7809.201842049921011

Abstract

There are, currently, many appeals for the adoption of more humane health care and are, thus, based on the "Caring" paradigm. One of the ways pointed out is the appreciation of the understanding of human vulnerability, especially when it is associated with the disease. Therefore, this study consists of understanding how the representation of human vulnerability of health care providers influences their practice of caring. The Human Vulnerability Representation Scale (HVRS) and the adapted Caring Attributes Scale (CAS) were applied to a sample of 1213 in health caregivers (doctors, nurses, medical students, and nursing students). Descriptive statistics (frequencies, measures of central tendency) and inferential analysis were performed (non-parametric tests, Spearman correlation coefficient). The results confirm a positive relationship between the two variables in the study because the caregivers with higher averages in the human vulnerability representation scale have higher averages in the scale of the caring attributes. That is, the greater the representation of human vulnerability, the greater the value of caring. This reality holds true for all dimensions of the scales. The experience of vulnerability allows the professional to better understand the patient, facilitates the development of empathy, and rouses caregivers to the need of improving the quality of care. It was concluded that the representation of human vulnerability may be the instrument for adopting the "Caring" paradigm. Thus, it would be important, in the near future, to develop interventions related to vulnerability capable of transforming future caregivers into humanization vehicles.