Political dimension of care: Power dynamics in health and its influence on the nurse work process

Abstract The study aimed to analyze how the political dimension of care interfere in the work process of nurses and other professionals, in this path, identifying constitutive elements (capitals) of power relations in the field of health. The research used a qualitative approach, with data collection taking place in a city in the interior of Ceará, Brazil, in a Reference Hospital and in Basic Health Units, between February and December 2020, through a semi-structured interview and non-participant observation. Thirty-three professionals were interviewed (nurses, doctors, dentists and physiotherapists), were totalized 43 hours of observation. The findings were analyzed based on Pierre Bourdieu’s “Habitus Theory”. It was observed that power relations interfered in the practice of nurses and other professionals, such interferences were expressed in the form of silences, hesitations and constraints. Some capitals in the field were identified: knowledge, ways of communicating, posture, gender, experience, professional category, friendship relationships, configuring constituent elements of power relations in the health field, therefore, being able to contribute for asymmetries in the distribution of power between agents.