ABSTRACT
Objective:
to discuss the intersection between being a nurse/being a therapist in the mental health field.
Method:
exploratory, qualitative study based on a self-report interview conducted with ten nurses from a psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro between June and July 2017. Data were analyzed in the light of Travelbee’s theory.
Results:
Nurses consider themselves therapists because of actions performed in mental health care practice, despite the theoretical fragmentation of interpersonal relationships identified in the distance from the promotion of self-knowledge, which is an essential element in the psychotherapeutic process.
Final considerations:
the strong relationship between being and doing in nursing stands out and favors the development of satisfactory therapeutic relationships with the hospitalized person.
Descriptors:
Nurse’s Role; Mental Health; Therapeutics; Psychiatric Nursing; Psychiatric Hospitals
