RAISING HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS ’ CONSCIOUSNESS ABOUT TREATMENT COMPLIANCE

Descriptive study with qualitative approach that aimed to understand the perspective of health professionals and hypertensive patients on their mutual interaction in the public health context, so as to analyze how this interaction contributes to non-compliance with treatment. Interviews with 15 health professionals and 10 hypertensive patients who interacted in public health units were carried out. In the interaction between the health professional and the hypertensive user, it was concluded that, in order to solve the problem of non-compliance with treatment from the part of the user, the health professional makes use of awareness strategies. In practice, however, this has occurred inappropriately and under the biomedical care model. Users, in turn, have managed treatment their own way, indicating some issues to health professionals regarding compliance. DESCRIPTORS: nurse-patient relations; physician-patient relations; hypertension; patient acceptance of health care; treatment refusa