This study aimed to describe and analyze how violence affects the working process of nurses in the Family Health Program. It consists of an exploratory-descriptive study developed in a district in the suburb of Belém, Pará, Brazil. Data were collected between August 2009 and February 2010, by means of interviews with 14 nurses, and then submitted to the method of content analysis, generating one of the themes of this study: 'Challenging violence', with derivative sub-topics such as territorial violence, institutional violence and intrafamilial violence. The result showed the impact of the violence phenomenon on the working process of the nurses of the Family Health Program units. This violence induces them to feel fear and professional frustration due to embarrassment and limitation of their roles, although they still challenge the obstacles encountered in their daily work.
Violence; Nurse's role; Family Health Program; Aged; Home visit