The Brazilian Health Ministry establishes that the entrance to primary health care services must occur through the User Embracement with Risk Classification. Product of the National Humanization Policy, the User Embracement advocates for new sensibilities with emphasis on affective and relational dimensions. However, the reorganization of the access by the guidelines of the Risk Classification institutionalizes a rational device in favor of optimizing care offers. Considering the gap between normative prescriptions and individual experiences, an observation was performed in the entrance of a primary care service of Rio de Janeiro with the aim to apprehend the strategies deployed by the social actors involved - users, health professionals and managers. The analysis of the material collected in the field illustrates the User Embracement as a polysemic category constitutes by a tension between two poles: rationality and experience, control and care.
primary health care; user embracement; humanization of assistance