Women waste pickers' perceptions of nursing care and environmentally sustainable practices: action research

To understand the perceptions of women waste pickers regarding nursing care in the promotion of environmentally sustainable practices, from the perspective of social entrepreneurship.

An action research study conducted between August 2024 and March 2025 with 26 women from a waste pickers' association located in southern Brazil, focusing on the promotion of environmentally sustainable practices. This study focused solely on the investigative phase, during which data were collected through individual interviews and examined using reflexive thematic analysis.

The women identified nursing care as essential to the organization and safety of the workplace. Their perceptions suggest that the presence of a nurse in the association's daily activities fostered recognition of the social value of their work and boosted their self-esteem. These findings reinforce the role of nursing care as a form of social entrepreneurship, intrinsically linked to environmental health.

The perspectives of women waste pickers reveal that conceiving of nursing care as a driver of sustainability requires a break from the conventional model. From the perspective of social entrepreneurship, care emerges as a systemic and relational phenomenon, in which the nurse serves as the essential link between human health and planetary integrity.