This study aimed to understand the teaching-learning process from the point-of-view of teachers and students who experienced the nursing practice in mental and psychiatric health. Data were collected through interviews with students and teachers who had experienced the phenomenon and analyzed according to a social phenomenology perspective. The teachers' experiences gave rise to the following concrete meaning categories: valuing communication and the relation between persons, learning to appreciate others as human beings, appreciating integral care; demythifying fears and prejudices and attaching meaning to self-knowledge. The following categories emerging from students' interviews: acknowledging the relevance of knowledge in communication and interpersonal relations; learning to appreciate others as human beings; applying acquired knowledge to integral care; feeling motivated to change attitudes; acknowledging the meaning of self-knowledge. Finally, the social types were described. In this subject, the teaching-learning process arouses interest in the specialty, personal development and valuation of its application in general nursing.
nursing education; psychiatric nursing; mental health; communication; nursing