The Institutionalization of a Psychology Service in a Federal Hospital through the Systematization of Psychological Interconsultation
Health Psychology, Hospital Psychology, Psychological Consultation-Liaison, Health Protocols
The performance of Psychology professionals at the hospital setting is marked by the institution’ characteristics and its operational dynamics. In the present work, the organisation of the Hospital Psychology Service through the Assistance Model of the Psychological Consultation-Liaison has constituted the principal aim of this investigation. As a starting point, it was questioned if the Consultation-Liaison can constitute a strategic and viable tool to the effectiveness of the psychological work within multiprofessional teams at the hospital routine. The research, which was configurated as quantitative and qualitative aimed to describe the systematisation process and evaluate the protocol results of the Psychological Consultation-Liaison operating on a public federal hospital located at the city of Rio de Janeiro; analysing the effects of its implantation on assistance action and interprofessional relationships. Considering the proposed goals, the investigation was developed unfolding itself in three distinct and interconnected studies, in which the results have been described and analysed, thus producing three scientific articles. The first one, presented the building process of the Psychological Service at the previously mentioned hospital, which is a reference in Surgical Specialities, reporting its history and structuring based on documents that have composed the process of the service’s implementation. The employed method was the Dialogical Emancipatory Narrative Analysis. On the second article, it was sought to describe and systematise the Consultation-Liaison actions made on the Psychological Service setting, throughout the years of 2017 and 2021, alongside the others hospital sectors, which included its organisation structure, functioning dynamic and outstanding results. To do so, the documental analysis was applied and the generated data were submitted to the simple descriptive statistical analysis. The Standard Operational Protocol of the Psychological Consultation-Liaison was made known and the triggered processes by this practice were analysed. It was presented 833 Psychological Consultation-Liaison solicitations coming from clinical and surgical teams of the hospital. The clinics that solicitated the assessment procedures the most were the Medical Clinic (38,17%), followed by Social Service (13,32%) and General Surgery (10,56%). The main reasons for its requirements were: Support within hospitalisation (31,57%), Psychological Evaluation for the patient (16,45%) and Palliative Care (13,56%). On the third article, the deployment effects regarding the systematic practice of the Consultation-Liaison about the interprofessional relationships assessed from the perspective of 20 professionals from different specialities, such as staffs, residents, nurses, nutritionists, social workers, nursing technicians, workers, and former workers of the hospital, that answered an electronic, self-administered questionnaire. Furthermore, it was sought to investigate these participants’ perceptions about the knowledges, skills and attitudes required from psychologists for the interrelations with other professionals on this context; as well as getting to know the impressions about the Psychological Consultation-Liaison based on its own experiences, investigation the senses attributed to the experimented phenomena. All the participants considered the Consultation-Liaison necessary and able to help with the development of professional competences and skills. The respondents declared that the Psychological Consultation-Liaison can integrate the multiprofessional teams, facilitate the interpersonal communication, amplify the understanding regarding the patients and mediate conflicts. These three studies corroborated with the thesis that the Psychological Consultation-Liaison as an Assistance Model is, in fact, capable of building a strategic and viable tool for effective psychological work within multiprofessional teams on the hospital routine through its systematisation, assisting on the institutionalisation of the Psychology Service in general and surgical hospital.