Introduction:

Entering the university entails changes in the students' lifestyles regarding the social, economic, personal, and metal areas. Sometimes, the related habituation process can produce stress, which is externalized as anxiety and depression, and which can become a risk to the students' mental health.

Objective:

To analyze the conception which students from a course of nursing have on experiencing discussions around suicide.

Methods:

This is a descriptive-exploratory qualitative study carried out in a Federal University of Northeastern Brazil. Fifteen students from a course of nursing, who integrated a project to develop actions on suicide prevention and life valorization, participated in this study. The resulting information was produced using a data processing software.

Results:

The conceptions were analyzed through a word-cloud and graphical representation of similarities methodology. The resulting combined conception was summarized by the words Project and Health, representing the students' motivation and experiences, and suicide as a health problem, respectively.

Conclusion:

The corresponding free-dialog discussion on the issue provided mental relief among the students by minimizing their symptoms of anxiety and depression. This approach can contribute to reduce the suicide rates in the institution.