This case study aimed to describe how the teaching of mental health is developed in a nursing undergraduate course and to verify how this teaching of mental influences the formation of the students. The sources of information were: the teaching plan, chronogram of the discipline and direct observation of the activities developed by a professor and 60 students. Luckesi's philosophy of education was the theoretical framework used. The students said that the strategies and the teaching methodology provided learning based on reality and that they motivated the search for extracurricular work which assisted the construction of knowledge. They also identified an environment of significant learning that encouraged them to exchange experiences with each other, with the professor and with other healthcare professionals. The adoption of active methodologies is shown as a viable route to achieve the pedagogic proposal in the teaching of mental health and in the formation of competent professionals.
Nursing; Psychiatric nursing; Mental health; Teaching; Learning
