[Psychiatric nursing practice at a public institution in Brazil]

This is a social and historical study whose objectives were to identify characteristic features of the psychiatric nursing practice from the point of view of nursing professionals working at a public psychiatric hospital in Rio de Janeiro over the course of a psychiatric care reform process, and to analyze the changes occurred in the nursing practice of those professionals. Their oral statements were used as the source for this study. Our findings showed that during the 'psychiatric care reform process, the nursing care provided by professionals kept presenting the segregating characteristics commonly-linked to the asylum care model, and that changes happened due to the influence of new routines and training these professionals were exposed to.