Abstract
Featuring the Family Health Strategy (FHS) as the main health policy prevailing in the country, whose beginning was in 1994, through the Family Health Program (PSF) with the overall objective of providing the population access to integrated actions directed at individuals, families, communities and the environment (1). This is a health policy currently implemented in most Brazilian cities, which prioritizes among other actions, the promotion, protection and recovery of the health of individuals and families in an integral and continuous (2). The care model of the FHS is a challenge to the nurse who, as a participant of the healthcare team, should take into account during its practice of social, political, economic and cultural relevance to the care process in the new model of health care (3).Health Education should be developed so as to favor the formation of a critical awareness of the reality and must have as its main objective the promotion of health (4). For the development of this research, we used the field exploratory study with a qualitative approach. The object of this study was the practices of Health Education carried out by the nurses who work for the Family Health Strategy, whose objectives were: to describe and to analyze the practices of Health Education carried out by the nurses who work for the Family Health Strategy; to reflect upon the articulation of the Family Health Strategy nurse’s practices and health promotion. The study was carried out within the Family Health teams of the Subdivision [also called Regional] East/Southeast of Teresina city, Piauí state. The subjects were 11 female nurses and 01 male nurse, who have been working for the Family Health Strategy for at least two years, in the above mentioned city. For the data collecting, we decided to use the technique of non-directive interview. The data analysis was carried out through Bardin’s Contents Analysis (AC) technique (5). The results scrutiny occurred by means of Paulo Freire’s teachings, regarding the concepts of educational practices, awareness and transformation. The research is in accordance with the ethic and legal aspects in reference to the Resolution no. 196/96. The analysis allowed us to attain three theme categories and six subcategories: the practice of the Family Health Program [called PSF, in Brazil] nurse (activities for the family, activities in the community, and activities in the home), health education practices of the Family Health Program nurses in the PSF (individual and joint practices), and meanings assigned to the health education practices. The results of this study allowed us to identify some aspects which have been present in the PSF nurses’ educational practices. The study shows us advances in the practices of Health Education carried out by the nurses in the Family Health Strategy, since these practices have been carried out so as to contribute for the process of an improvement in people’s life quality. However, we emphasize that the term Health Education is understood by the nursing professionals restrictedly, with the main focus being disease prevention, through enhancing people’s behavior change.