Brazil has been severely affected by the pandemic of COVID-19. In this context, health professionals remain exposed to stressful factors for a long pandemic period, leaving them at their physical and emotional limits. These professionals are submitted to overload and long working hours, moral dilemmas, financial losses, a constant and prolonged exposure to biological risks when facing COVID-19 and fear of family transmission of the disease. In this scenario, this research was developed with the following

objective:

To evaluate the repercussions of the pandemic of COVID-19 on healthcare professionals.

Method:

This is an exploratory, descriptive, quantitative and qualitative study. The participants were healthcare professionals, who worked in the state of Rio de Janeiro during the COVID-19 pandemic. Recruitment occurred from 07/2020 to 09/30/2020, through an electronic survey, preceded by an online Informed Consent. Data were processed by IRaMuTeQ software, and textual analyses were performed. The study is theoretically based on the concepts developed by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.

Results:

554 participants were enrolled in the study. Data from the study form were organized and processed from simple descriptive statistics to characterize the subjects and processed by IRaMuTeQ. The Descending Hierarchical Classification (CHD) was finalized in 4 classes Class 1 - Professionals' fear of getting sick and contaminating family members; Class 2 - Work issues; Class 3 - Feeling of helplessness and the need for public policies and governmental actions; and Class 4 - Tiredness and exhaustion in the pandemic.

Conclusion:

The study revealed health care workers' exacerbated fear of being infected by SARS-CoV-2 and of transmitting the infection to their families, in addition to financial losses and feelings of helplessness and abandonment. These feelings were compounded by the lack of policy direction or implementation of effective measures to minimize and control the spread of the disease. Some of these health professionals manifested signs of physical and emotional illness, evidencing a second silent pandemic of negative feelings, prolonged stress, work overload, and fatigue. The persistence of the pandemic generated as a consequence the physical and mental overload of health professionals. When we observe the central points of the four classes generated by the CHD, we identify that they converge in a symbolic violence directed by the federal instance (dominant) to health professionals (dominated) who were at the point of assistance in the pandemic of COVID-19. The different categories of the health area, regardless of their accumulated capital and field of action, were approached by their incorporated habitus and identified a need for resolutive change in the pandemic scenario, but which was inaccessible to them because they were the dominated ones. It is valid to evaluate the reports of these professionals, listen to their perceptions, detect warning signs of symbolic violence, and promote a possible early intervention of emotional support during and after the pandemic, configuring a health care measure for this professional class. It is necessary to care for the health of workers who provide direct assistance to patients, especially within the context of pandemics, watching over their protection, rights, and their mental health.