A metaethnographic approach to rationality and emotionality in the health care processes in hospitals in Latin America

Abstract

Healthcare process that take place in hospitals are shaped around different relational dimensions between the actors involved. Western societies have naturalized these institutions as spaces of presumed vertical structure, ruled by biomedical rationality. This literature review shows that care practices entail different relations, knowledge and emotions, which configure aspects found outside the institution’s standards. It investigates the healthcare processes developed in Latin America hospitals, focusing on the tensions between the rationality imposed by the norm and the emotions that emerge in the work process. For this purpose, a metaethnography was carried out to summarize qualitative research and produce new interpretations on the topic. A total 36 scientific papers was obtained by searching the BVS, PubMed, SciELO and Scopus databases. Results show that rationalities and emotions function as structural dimensions of healthcare processes in hospitals.