Introduction:

Stigma marks the clear lack of attention to those patients with mental health problems. The nursing profession has the tools to face this challenging scenario.

Objective:

To reflect the experiences lived by students during psychiatric nursing practice within the prison field of the State of Mexico, Mexico.

Methodology:

Is an account of the professional experience of nursing students, having provided care to persons deprived of liberty with psychiatric conditions. The setting was a prevention and social reinsertion center, a very strict place for admission and marginalized for health care. Ten students participated, attending to patients from October 11 to November 3, 2022. They underwent semi-structured telephone interviews, recorded with two themes: personal and professional perception and later transcribed. A critical analysis was conducted to aggregate the findings using the chromatic technique.

Results:

The following six categories are obtained: expectations, personal experience, stigma, professional experience, learning/competence, and meaning of practice.

Conclusions:

Students report that the experience was enriching, breaking personal and professional stigmas, as well as allowing them to visualize that nursing work is extensive and valuable for psychiatric care. Significant experience, where personal and professional growth was obtained with a high degree of empathy towards patients, identifying an obligation of the academies to promote professional training in different contexts to reduce the stigma in the health environment in order to have an in-depth understanding of mental health problems, and reduce the gaps in care.

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