Banco de leite humano no oeste catarinense: processo de implantação, funcionamento e atuação da enfermagem

Abstract

The Human Milk Bank (HMB) is a specialized service linked to a hospital and focused on maternal and/or child care. It is responsible for promoting, protecting and supporting breastfeeding, as well as carrying out activities involving the collection of surplus milk production from nursing mothers, processing, quality control and distribution of the collected milk. This research aimed to understand how the Nursing team assists in a HMB linked to a public hospital in the west of Santa Catarina and as specific objectives aimed to understand the stages of collection, processing and distribution of human milk, from its collection to supply. to newborns, identify the origin of the milk donated to the HMB and the flows involved in this process and analyze the functioning of the HMB according to current regulatory standards. This is a qualitative research, case study type developed in a HMB located in the south of Brazil, in the western region of Santa Catarina. Four professionals who were members of the BLH Nursing team and a Nursing professional who was part of the team prior to the research participated in the research. Data collection was carried out between the months of September and November 2024, with entries totaling 45 hours, in varying shifts. Data were collected through the application of a checklist to verify compliance with HMB operating standards, non- participant observation, semi-structured interviews and a field diary. The data were subjected to systematic analysis. All ethical aspects were respected, and the project was approved under opinion number 7,076,085 and CAAE 82245024.4.0000.5564. Completing the checklist, together with the observations made, through insertions in the service, made it possible to understand all the steps that structure the functioning of the HMB studied, demonstrating items that differ from the technical standards and normative resolutions in force. The observations and interviews elucidated the important role that professionals working at HMB play, pointing out some weaknesses that concern the ideal team versus the current team, in addition to understanding the important implementation process that the service went through. The physical structure needs to be expanded so that all regulatory standards can be fully complied with. Regarding, especially, nursing care, a significant role of nursing techniques in direct patient care was identified, while nurses allocate a good part of their time to management activities. In the phase of collection, processing and distribution of expressed human milk, the participation of the Nursing team was identified, being responsible for most of the activities carried out at these times, with professionals trained through a specific course for this activity and periodic training to improve the services. The BLH is an institution supported by different technical standards and normative resolutions, and employees' knowledge of these is essential to perform their duties masterfully. This study highlighted the importance of Nursing in the management of human milk, from providing guidance to donors to safe distribution, in addition to offering emotional support to mothers.