Humanization of nursing in the context of psychiatric hospitals: perspectives and challenges

In the beginning of psychiatry, the asylum was considered the ideal model for treatment in the area of mental health, where care was based on isolation in prisons, highlighting the lack of humanization and consequently, mistreatment. Psychiatric Reform emerged in Brazil in 1970, with the aim of reverting to the dehumanized form of care, through movements carried out by recently trained professionals in the area of Brazilian psychiatric care. The general objective of this study was to analyze recent literature on the humanization of nursing professionals in the context of psychiatric hospitals. The methodology used was an integrative, qualitative literature review, using publications in the Portuguese language and published between 2013 and 2023, in the databases: Virtual Health Library (VHL) and Scientific Eletronic Library (SCIELO), with the following descriptors: Nursing Care, “Hospitals, Psychiatric”, and Humanization of Assistance. The result was an initial sample of 231 articles and a final sample of eight publications. It is concluded that qualified assistance in the institucional environment is still essential, with the nursing professional being on of the main responsible for this process, considering that the current therapeutic approach to psychiatry is being increasingly directed to the extra-hospital context, becoming further studies on this topic are necessary.