The basic actions of health centralized in the family, as a service unit in nursing, constitute one of the strategies to reach the goal "health for every one in year 2.000". The acknowledgement of the role of the nurse as a health multiplying agent and intermediate element between the individual - family - sanitary unit, is the main reason for the achievement of this study which, among other purposes, aims at evaluating the nursing participation in the family health care. The sample consists of seventy-five families living in the Novo Horizonte district, in Feira de Santana, State of Bahia, and twenty-three elements of the nursing team which work in that community. The results obtained show the acknowledgement of the family as a nursing service unit, considering that the family is the propelling agent of its own health. Nevertheless, there is a grester reorientation and remotivation need in the health institutions, so that the sanitary programs may have a direct participation of the Family, close to specialists (nurses, physicians and others), in order that, in a joint work, they can change the physical, social and environmental conditions which ihiiuence their quality of life - HEALTH.
