Exploring the relationship between popular education and health care as regards to public and community health nursing, a case is made that popular education is more than a pedagogical approach to teaching. Following an inductive strategy, experiential vignettes of the author’s practices and commitments in impoverished Brazilian populations are systematized to identify contributions of popular education in health care. Experiential learning leads to a preferential option for the poor, a reduction of power inequalities between program agents and the people, the use of Observe-Judge-Act methodology and a theory that is realistic in terms of possible changes of consciousness. Popular education fosters both the emergence of tacit nursing care actions and includes those of voiceless populations living in poverty.
Community health nursing; Health education; Poverty