[The psychiatric education of professional nurses. What education for which nurses?]

On the basis of a structured interview of 27 professional nurses who have recently started their practice in the psychiatric services of the USSL 34 Ferrara, the authors analyze the difficulties met in the working place. Three main findings deserve underlining: strong perception of the inadequacy of the basic training provided in schools, the need of reference persons, even if reliance on "old" behavioral models may represent an obstacle to change, the extreme degree of disaffection with respect to the working environment which leads to a passive acceptance of the present state of things.