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

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the meanings assigned by people with systemic arterial hypertension to health education actions in the waiting room.

METHOD: 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.

RESULT: 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.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: The waiting room became an environment that promoted interaction, favoring the construction of meanings and internalization of knowledge with potential for lifestyle changes.