Introduction

Patient safety is an important and essential aspect of proper care provision. Research on patient safety has been focused more on the hospital aspect due to the fact of providing more complex care. However, many events with unintentional injuries take places in the vaccination room, which could be preventable for most of them. The purpose of this work is to know the perception of nursing professionals on patient safety in the vaccination room.

Materials and Methods

A descriptive, qualitative study was conducted in a medium-sized municipality of the southeastern region of Brazil between March and May 2016 using open-ended interviews and analyzed from the perspective of Alfred Schütz’s social phenomenology. Participants in the research were nursing professionals who worked in eight vaccination rooms.

Results

Based on the analysis of open-ended interviews, the results were classified into two categories: “A view to the vaccination room and patient safety” and “Work in the vaccination room: the search for safe vaccination.” Professionals understand the importance of providing safe and high-quality care in the vaccination room. However, many environmental, structural and managerial factors influence how such care is provided.

Discussion

The phenomenological reduction of this phenomenon and its understanding leads us to the belief that professionals should refuse to pre-existent “guesswork” that might influence safe practice and include knowledge and experiences based on basic vaccination principles.

Conclusions

Safe immunization practices can promote preventive health as primary care and collective good.

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