Objective: to understand how nurses of mental health care for psychiatric patients with clinical comorbidities. Method: qualitative study based on the referential of historical and dialectical materialism. Interviews with nurses were conducted using semi-structured script. Sample determined in snowball. The interviews were recorded and transcribed in full. The data were analyzed through content analysis, including: organization and exhaustive reading of the material, exploration, grouping data

more »

... nto thematic units, processing of results, and interpretation. Results: the role of nurses is marked by the dialectic between knowing and not knowing, a movement that revealed two categories: clinic of psychiatric nursing, and alienation and subordination of nurse in the care process. Final considerations: the development of the nursing clinic, based on the therapeutic relationship, favors integral care towards the patient, whereas alienation/subordination distances the nurse from care and impairs care.