. These brief historical fragments reveal the close relation of these professions with the medical area. These were developed as from medical needs or demands for specialties. In this social construction, the naturalization of occupations ranked under social practices in health (1) becomes clear.
Every society possesses regimes of truthIntegrated in this social structure, this study analyzes the discourse of students entering nursing, physiotherapy and nutrition programs, because they represent a reality where regimes of truth are produced on these professions, and which are expressed in social policies, health institutions, the media and institutions.A study carried out with undergraduate students about professional prestige of 13 higher education professions hints that hierarchy is expressed in the judgment of each profession. In this study, the medical profession was identified as the one with the highest prestige, physiotherapy ranked sixth and nursing eighth, while nutrition was not included in the list of evaluated professions (6) . Another recent study appoints the media's influence on the formation of statements present in the image of professions like nursing, which require these professions to seek strategies to provide more information, visibility and to have a voice in the social scope (7) . Reflections regarding the results of these studies indicate the need to broaden the understanding of the scenario in which the choice of a career and the education of future health professionals take place.Rev Latino-am Enfermagem 2009 maio-junho; 17(3):396-402 www.eerp.usp.br/rlae Nursing, nutrition and physiotherapy students… Ojeda BS, Creutzberg M, Feoli AMP, Melo DS, Corbellini VL.
METHODThis is a qualitative-descriptive study. All students who met the inclusion criteria: availability to participate in focus groups, entered university through the required written exam, were attending the first course semester, were invited to participate.Data collection was carried out through focus groups. The focus group technique has been increasingly used in several areas of research, especially in research using qualitative methods aiming at social investigation. This technique permits the researcher to know the opinion, thoughts, feelings and actions of a given group in relation to a social phenomenon (8) . The seven focus g r o u p s w i t h s e v e n t o 1 2 p a r t i c i p a n t s w e r e Data were analyzed through discourse analysis in Foucault's perspective (5) . The analysis proposes to describe statements, which might be expressed in different ways: in a phrase, a figure or in an act of language. Social conceptions on the chosen area were analyzed based on the participants' discourse, seeking to put in evidence which regimes of truth permeate concepts and practices in these areas.