The waiting room: potential for people with arterial hypertension to learn

To analyze the meanings assigned by people with systemic arterial hypertension to health education actions in the waiting room. This is an analytical qualitative study, held in 2016 with 19 people with arterial hypertension from a health unit. The data were collected in households, through a semi-structured interview and field notes, recorded on audio, transcribed and organized by thematic analysis, being analyzed considering Vygostky's Cultural-Historical Learning Theory. Meanings of attention, interest, pleasure and learning assigned to educational practice denote the importance of interaction and mediation to reconstruct knowledge about blood pressure control and to attribute a new meaning to self-care. The waiting room became an environment that promoted interaction, favoring the construction of meanings and internalization of knowledge with potential for lifestyle changes.