ABSTRACT
Professionally mature spiritual care involves nurses developing the ability to protect themselves, to maintain a healthy emotional balance and so manage their involvement in therapeutic relationships with patients. Education settings provide an opportunity to encourage discussion, which highlights the importance of a disciplined approach to spending time in activities that are spiritually replenishing. In various ways, and at different levels, participants exhibited professional maturity in their ability to 'get to know' their patients, and 'to stay' in working environments that were repeatedly emotionally challenging due to patients' loss and loss of patients. Contributory factors that enabled them to do this included an ability to recognize their own vulnerability and seek support, engaging in activities chosen for replenishment and solitary activity or 'time out' to just be themselves. In this way, they safeguarded their spiritual integrity, a crucial element in the development of proficiency in spiritual care.
