This study focuses on the relation between the psychiatric project that had been established in Brazil from the end of the XIX century and the practices of the nursing staff preparation developed in Brazilian psychiatric institutions, between the 20s and 50s, using oral history as the research method. Through the historical reconstruction of certain aspects that characterized the psychiatric care organization in this country and the ways assumed by the processes of formation of the nursing staff in those institutions, it was verified that nursing constituted a fundamental element for the establishment of the asylum assistance model adopted in Brazil.519-30