Labyrinths of nursing training and the Brazilian National Mental Health Policy.

Objective: to analyze the training of nurses from public and private educational institutions of the city of São Paulo from the perspective of the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform.

Methods: a qualitative, descriptive-exploratory research, using as methodological framework documentary analysis of the pedagogical projects of the participating institutions and content analysis of the interviews carried out with mental health professors.

Results: it was identified that most mental health courses had insufficient workload for adequate training; theory emphasized the study of mental disorders and drug treatment; practice, in some schools, was carried out in psychiatric hospitals.