Abstract

DIAZ LLANES, Guillermo  and  PRIETO SEDANO, Judith. Social representation of the health service providers in visual disability. Rev Cubana Salud Pública [online]. 2014, vol.40, n.1, pp. 18-25. ISSN 0864-3466.

Introduction: knowing the social representation of the health service providers is very important for the public health, due to their influence on the quality of relationship with the patients. Objective: to characterize the social representation of the health service providers on visual disability. Methods: case study performed in "Hermanos Ruiz Aboy" in San Miguel del Padron municipality in the period of January through June, 2012. Thirty three key informants selected by intentional sampling participated. The research techniques were free association of words and in-depth interviews. Results: this study disclosed the existence in health providers of an anguishing-commisserative-dependent representation that shapes elements from experience referents, affective components and informational inputs related to the persons facing visual disability. Conclusions: the health service providers under research have, in the core of their representation, experiences and knowledge linked to the anatomical damage that causes limitation and disability to be involved in the people with visual disability; however, the relative associations with the care requirements define a poor recognition of those elements that would assure compensation and psychosocial integration of these people.

Keywords : social representations; service providers; visual disability.