Perception of own competence to caring on mental disorder’ patient: the social representations of nurses

Abstract

The aim this study was to analyze the social representations of nurses, the own competence to caringon mental disorder’ patient. The research is qualitative, descriptive and exploratory on the theory ofsocial representations, following the guidelines of the collective subject discourse. The sampleconsisted of 30 nurses from a general public hospital in São Paulo state, SP, Brazil. The central ideasrelated to nurses who consider themselves prepared were: "Work Experience", "Knowledge","Experience", "Training" and "Identification with the area." Nurses who do not consider themselvesprepared are represented by the central ideas: "Lack of knowledge", "Lack of training", "Lack ofstructure", "Insecurity", "Hospital is not reference" and "Difficulty in dealing with the patient". Themajority of nurses believes that the lack of infrastructure and professional experience havecontributed to not consider themselves to attend to the patient.

Descriptors: Mental disorders; Mental health; Mental health assistance