Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Healthcare Management
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Hospitals are central to pandemic response following a public health emergency declaration.
• Assessing healthcare professionals' capacity is crucial for effective pandemic management.
• This study focuses on a referral hospital in Pernambuco, Brazil.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the response capacity of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• To identify critical events influencing this response.
• To analyze professional resilience through absorption, adaptation, and transformation.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative evaluative research employing a case study design.
• Data collection through interviews with 18 frontline healthcare professionals, direct observation, and literature review.
• Analysis using Actor-Network Theory and resilience categories (absorption, adaptation, transformation).

Main Results:

• Five critical events significantly impacted professionals' response capacity: case arrival, patient-social network connection methods, socio-personal impact, resource/supply shortages, and professional shortages/illness.
• Professionals exhibited a priority adaptation process in their daily experiences.
• This adaptation has the potential to drive significant health system changes.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare professionals' response capacity is shaped by critical pandemic-related events.
• Adaptation emerged as a key resilience strategy, influencing daily practices.
• The findings suggest that professional adaptation can accelerate necessary transformations within the health system.