Abstract
Objective: To identify the challenges in the prevention of hypertension in Primary Health Care in relation to nursing practice. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study with a qualitative approach, carried out with nurses from the selected basic health units. A questionnary with questions related to theme was used. Results: The main challenges faced by nurses in preventing hypertension were identified, which are: making the population aware of maintaining healthy living habits; difficulty in reaching the entire population with health education, as well as difficulty in bringing the population to the PHCU. Among the factors that contribute to the difficulty of preventing hypertension were found: obesity, inadequate diet, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, alcoholism, genetic factors, and socioeconomic factors. Conclusion: It can be seen that nursing has enough knowledge to guide patients to prevent hypertension. However, the population presents a lot of resistance in following the nursing orientations, because even though they are aware of the inadequate habits, they feel unmotivated to change, due to the chronicity of the disease.