Communication of nursing students in listening to patients in a psychiatric hospital

Abstract Qualitative exploratory and descriptive study with the aim of analyzing the communication of nursing students in the listening to patients in mental suffering admitted in a psychiatric hospital. The study was carried out from April to May 2013, with 23 nursing students regularly enrolled in a public higher education institution in the Southeast of Brazil. The data were collected based on artistic production and interviews, analyzed and categorized according to their thematic content. Proxemic nonverbal communication was unanimously indicated by the students based on personal-body position of face, neck, and, shoulders adopted in the listening to patients in mental suffering. The conscious use of proxemics favored clinical reasoning, improving interaction and listening in speech and thought disorders. Attentive, effective, and affective listening demands availability, control of fear, tension, anxiety, and insecurity