Modern Nursing: Spiritual and Holistic Care Skills

Held in the heart of Poland’s spiritual capital, Częstochowa, this event brought participants together to focus on issues related to the development of modern nursing, with a particular emphasis on spiritual care and a holistic approach to patients.

Representatives from the Spirit4Care project consortium—a project led by Hénallux Recherche—took part in the conference. Among them were Joséphine Declaye (Hénallux Academy) and Geoffroy Grégoire (Hénallux Recherche), as well as Dr. Afi Agboli from the University of Luxembourg.

Serena Buchter, from UCL’s international “Health, Care, and Spirituality” network, and Sara Lima, director of the Health and Well-Being Innovation Unit at CESPU, participated remotely.

In particular, the focus was on presenting to the audience the institutional initiatives that this ERASMUS+ project has launched within Hénallux, such as the integration of a course dedicated to spiritual care into the curriculum for third-year nursing students. During the 2025–2026 academic year, 71 students took this course.

In addition, a significant portion of the conference consisted of a series of clinical workshops using educational materials developed as part of the Spirit4Care project. Participants thus had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge and practical skills in three thematic areas.

• “The Language of Photography in Spiritual Care: Exploring the Personal Dimension of Spirituality” – led by Bożena Boborowska, M.Sc., registered nurse,
• “Making the Invisible Visible: The Challenging Art of Dialogue That Takes Spirituality Into Account” – led by Dr. Krystyna Mizerska,
• “Identifying Patients’ Spiritual Resources and Needs” – led by Sylwia Radecka, M.Sc., registered nurse.

This conference was an important event for promoting the results of the international Spirit4Care project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ program. As a reminder, our project aims to support the sustainable integration of spiritual and holistic care competencies into nursing education and training systems across Europe. It also focuses on developing healthcare professionals’ competencies in spiritual self-care.