STRESS FACTORS IN THE PROFESSORS OF NURSING COURSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenges in all spheres of society, which have included significant changes in teachers' work environments, bringing additional individual and family psycho-emotional factors. The study aimed to identify stressors and describe the challenges faced by nursing faculty at two Brazilian higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study with a qualitative approach; data collection occurred in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and was carried out in two higher education institutions. The study population consisted of 41 teachers. The sample corresponded to the professors who answered the online questionnaire, 20 from a public institution and 12 from a private institution. It was identified that the majority were female (75%). The analyses were performed with the IRAMUTEQ® software using the Analysis of Similitude and the Word Cloud. Two categories were found: "The fears experienced by teachers in the COVID-19 pandemic" and "Challenges in adapting teachers to the pandemic period." The results indicated that the demands attributed by remote teaching overloaded the teachers due to the need for the work to have been considerably increased and the mixed character of the work and home environment to be associated. It is believed that the present study reflects contributions to the scientific and academic community, while enabling a better understanding of teacher coping with the pandemic period, aiming at future analyses and interventions of other public health emergencies to protect the psychoemotional and social balance of teachers.