This study, based on social determination and the systematization by Laurell and Noriega, aims to understand the health-disease process experienced by nursing workers at a psychiatric hospital, with a view to identifying the burdens nursing workers at a psychiatric hospital are exposed to; understanding the exhaustive processes they experience and analyzing the coping strategies indicated as processes that increase quality of life at work. Data were collected through a focal group with 6 participants. Results showed that the object of work, i.e. the psychiatric patient, is seen as socially excluded. With regard to the work load, workers are exposed to all kinds of burdens, but the work load is intensified by the mental burden. Exhaustion is present in physical as well as mental terms. Workers present great mental exhaustion, due to the work conditions experienced or not, specifically because of living with the object of work.
psychiatric nursing; health; workers; mental health
