SOUZA, J. D. M.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/4160244841806165; SOUZA, Josefa Daniele Miguel de.
Resumen:
Teaching mental health in nursing courses is mandatory, but not always accepted positively
by academics. This is often due to prejudice that come from the medium in which the student
is inserted or also because they feel unprepared to deal with situations that require immediate
action, such as direct contact with the patient. This study aimed to investigate whether there
were changes in the conception of mental health during the academic nursing education in
order to verify the influence of the subjects of this area and other experiences in the training
process. This is an exploratory, descriptive and qualitative study. The procedure used for data
collection was the application of specific questionnaire designed for the research on the topic.
The subjects were freshman students of the undergraduate course in Nursing at the Federal
University of Campina Grande - Campus Cajazeiras, and those enrolled in courses of the sixth
semester of this course that had already taken the subjects "Mental Health Nursing" and "
Psychiatry Nursing ", totaling 36 students. The data collected through the questionnaire were
categorized with tabulation and simple statistical analysis of the variables investigated in the
multiple-choice questions and qualitative analysis of the answers to essay questions, using the
Content Analysis technique. The identified categories were: feelings about mental health;
knowledge perceived as insufficient; performance in mental health; preferences for other
areas. It brings as a result an observation of the changes of conceptions among the students of
the first and sixth semesters in the nursing program, enabling further research on the impact
and the dynamics of these changes in nursing education. In conclusion, we understand that it
is fundamental to the process of change in the way that these students think and act towards
the issue, in order to place themselves as future qualified professionals to work in different
areas of mental health care.
