Women waste pickers' perceptions of nursing care and environmentally sustainable practices: action research.
Roseléia Regina Halmenschlager, Rosiane Aparecida Copetti Macht, Livia Brum de Brum and 3 others
PMID 42113796WHAT IT FOUND
Women waste pickers described nursing care and ecological care as one practice.
They valued a clean, supportive workplace, rest and teamwork, and saw waste sorting as protecting community health.
Key findings
01Women saw nursing care and ecological care as one practice, describing themselves as Environmental Nurses and linking waste sorting to community health.
02They described well-being as relational, depending on a clean, supportive workplace and mutual support among women.
03They said rest, teamwork and emotional well-being were necessary for sustainable work.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
All participants were women from one recycling association in southern Brazil, so the findings may not apply to other waste picker groups, men, or other settings. The study is qualitative and reports perceptions, so it does not measure whether nursing care improved health, safety or waste sorting. The interviewer had previously taken part in the interventions and built trust with participants, which may shape what women were willing to say. Only 26 women were included, and those on leave were excluded.
Declared interests
The work was funded by Brazil's CNPq through a research productivity grant; no competing interests were declared in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that nursing care improves waste sorting, health or sustainability. It reports perceptions and did not measure outcomes.