This is the report of an investigation that was carried out in order to apprehend themes that explain nursing work at a day hospital in João Pessoa, State of Paraíba, in the perspective of the psychiatric reform. The authors used the referential of dialectical and historical materialism and work as an analytical category. The empirical material was analyzed through the technique of discourse analysis. The study revealed a coincident theme - to change the model of traditional psychiatric assistance - and, in this sense, the work of nursing incorporates, in addition to its formal, technically specialized quality, a political quality, thus indicating a new meaning to the nursing work process.
Psychiatric nursing; Hospitals, day; Desinstitutionalization; Mental health