Abstract
Objectives
to reflect on the inequalities that affect Nursing in its historical trajectory and that are accentuated during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
critical-reflective method based on historical-dialectical materialism. Positions of Nursing class entities, epidemiological bulletins and news about the work context of health professionals were analyzed since March 2020.
Results
issues about the inequalities and hierarchies specific to health teams were discussed, in view of the perspectives of class, gender and race/ethnicity that exert an impact on the Nursing profession and health work and that are accentuated in the context of COVID-19. The impacts of the pandemic expose the devaluation of the Nursing work, evidenced by the social invisibility of the category and the precariousness of the life of those who exercise it.
Conclusion and implication for the practice
It is urgent and necessary to recognize that the inequalities aggravated by the pandemic are part of a structural condition of society, and that it directly affects Nursing workers. Furthermore, it is opportune for Nursing to profile struggles with civil society in the egalitarian defense of justice, for universal social protection and in overcoming the structural drivers of inequalities.
Keywords:
Nursing; Unified Health System; Occupational Health; Coronavirus