Psychiatric Nursing in Integrated Wards Accommodating Both Female and Male Patients: A Historic Pioneering Reform Initiative Implemented by the Institute of Psychiatry, a Unit of the Federal University of Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze aspects of the sexuality of people with mental disorders, an issue that influenced nursing care in the mixed nursing wards of the Institute of Psychiatry at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro between 1996–2002. A qualitative Historical Social Study methodology used written and oral texts that were analyzed drawing on Michel Foucault's ideas about sexuality. Results of the study indicate that a rupture occurred in the distribution model according to gender at the Psychiatric Hospitalization Unit. This, in turn, influenced nursing care. From this study, we conclude that accommodating patients in mixed wards better facilitates the psychosocial rehabilitation process and changes nursing teams’ conceptions about the sexuality of people with mental disorders.