Pais que não utilizaram ASI com seu filho : a experiência após o acidente de automóvel

Abstract

Traffic accidents are one of the most significant causes of death in Brazil. They are not merely a major public health problem due to accident sequels and loss of life, but also to hospital costs paid by the government and by society as a whole. Owing to the facts above and to the lack of publications on the subject in Brazil, current qualitative and exploratory research analyzes the experience of parents of children who were not using the Safety Car Seat (SCS) when they underwent a car accident in Londrina PR Brazil. Participants comprised 17 parents of children, aged 0-8 years, living in Londrina, and attended by the Integrated Trauma and Emergency Care team after suffering a car accident on the city streets and sent to hospitals in the same city. The period ranged between 2008 and 2011, although the 2001 data were only for the first six months of that year. Research project was submitted to the Bioethics and Ethics Committee and approved by Decision n. 042/10. The guiding question during the interview was: "What is your experience when your child became involved in a car accident in which the use of SCS was discarded?" The interview was recorded and transcribed verbatim and data analysis was processed following content analysis proposed by Minayo (2008). The experience of 11 out of 17 parents interviewed, involving 9 families, informed current analysis. Four categories emerged: (1) Traffic accidents: Who is safe? (2) Feeling at the moment of the accident; (3) Information before and after the SCS mandatory stance; (4) The accident's aftermath: experience leads towards lesson-taking. People do not believe that accidents will happen to them or to their kin. Many interviews show that blame transference to another person is a form of statement that tries to minimize the parents' responsibility. In many cases the non-use of SCS was justified by sheer lack of information. In the opinion of interviewed parents, the use of SCS was highly important when children could not be left alone in the back seat and when children were under one year, in which case the transport of infants is feasible. TV programs were the source of information most cited by the interviewed parents, whereas professionals were as a rule left out as SCS promoters. The interviews were filled with feelings of blame, fear and trauma. Constant inspection and the population's formation process become highly relevant so that SCS may be used by all. Within the context, the nurses' role should be highlighted since they are the professional educators for health promotion and the prevention of harm through basic orientations on the importance of vaccine, for example, or on the need of using correctly children's SCS.