The main objective of this case study was to understand the care construction in the Home Care Program for the Bedridden (Programa de Atendimento Domiciliar ao Acamado) from a Basic Health Care Unit in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Data was collected from 13 group meetings with 29 caretakers and participating observation registered in field diaries in the homes from May to December, 2006 and analyzed through discourse analysis. The chairs destined to patient comfort in their homes and the naso-enteral tube were identified as expressions of power in relationships with the caregivers. The chair symbolizes a relationship of changing power, sometimes present in the person who performs care, sometimes in the person who is placed in the chair. The nasoenteral tube signified suffering and limitation imposed on the other. References are based on Foucault, which refer to the question of man as a creator and exerciser of power, but without a doubt point out that power may produce freedom.
Aged; Home nursing; Power