Concepts of care as elaborated by nurses working in psychiatric institutions

This study aimed to identify the concept of care of nurses who work in psychiatric institutions, and associate the results obtained with the ontological and epistemological issues in nursing care. An exploratory-descriptive study using a qualitative analysis was carried out with seven nurses employed at two inpatient psychiatric institutions in the state of Paraná. The selection criterion for the subjects studied was the nurse’s employment status with the above mentioned institutions. Data were collected using a semi-structured format while the interviews were recorded and transcribed. The data were sorted using the content thematic analysis te­chnique, which evidenced four categories. The results pointed to a professional discourse ruled by principles observed in psychiatry. However, the nurses were not able to define these principles or even characterize them conceptually into authors or theories that approach them. Interestingly, even without being conceptually distinguishing the theories, the nurses declared to be performing satisfactorily and with dedicated care and promoting adequate interaction with mental health patients.