Power relations in the family health team: focus on nursing.

Objective: to analyze the power relations that permeate the work of the family health team, and to discuss perspectives of emancipation of these subjects, focusing on nursing and community health agents.
Method: a qualitative study with a family health team from a municipality in the countryside of the state of São Paulo. Data were collected through systematic observation and interview with workers. A thematic content analysis was performed.
Results: three categories were identified: the work of the family health team and power relations; power relations between the nurse and the healthcare team; and the relations among the nursing team and between community agents and the nurse. The team produces relations of power moved by hierarchical knowledge that move in the search for the reordering of powers.
Final Considerations: it is necessary to review the contradictions present in the performance scenario of the family health teams, with a view toward making power relations more flexible.