BACKGROUND: Caring for intellectually disabled people can be demanding for student nurses who are novices in the nursing profession. To ensure that quality nursing care is provided, student nurses should have an understanding of and a positive attitude towards intellectually disabled people. Nursing intellectually disabled people can be a challenge for the student nurses. Therefore, student nurses need to be able to deal with challenges of caring for intellectually disabled people. OBJECTIVE: This article aims to explore and describe experiences of student nurses caring for intellectually disabled people in a public psychiatric institution. Design and method: A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used. Data were collected through individual in-depth phenomenological interviews, naive sketches and field notes. Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the collected data. Results were contextualised within the literature and measures to ensure trustworthiness were adhered to. Ethical principals were also applied throughout the research process. RESULTS: Five themes emerged from the data. Student nurses experienced a profoundly unsettling impact on their whole being when caring for intellectually disabled people; they developed a sense of compassion and a new way of looking at life, and experienced a need for certain physical, mental and spiritual needs to be met. CONCLUSION: From the results, it is evident that student nurses were challenged in caring for intellectually disabled people. However, they developed a sense of awareness that intellectually disabled people have a need to be cared for like any other person.

CONTEXTO: A importância de ter de considerar o papel da espiritualidade na saúde, saúde mental e psiquiatria na África do Sul tem sido especialmente enfatizada pela recente legislação sobre práticas tradicionais de saúde na África. OBJETIVO: Explorar as opiniões e experiências de psiquiatras locais sobre o papel da espiritualidade na prática e no treinamento de especialistas em psiquiatria na África do Sul. MÉTODO: Este estudo é uma pesquisa qualitativa, exploratória, descritiva, contextual, fenomenológica e geradora de hipótese. A fonte principal de dados foram entrevistas semiestruturadas com psiquiatras filiados a uma universidade local. Para assegurar de que os dados fossem confiáveis, as seguintes medidas foram incluídas: credibilidade, transferibilidade, confiabilidade, e confirmabilidade. RESULTADOS: A consciência da espiritualidade, "mindfulness", e uma abordagem de mente aberta sobre a espiritualidade, segundo os participantes, devem ser facilitadas na prática e no treinamento psiquiátrico. Seis temas foram identificados por meio de códigos abertos. DISCUSSÃO: Todos os participantes, independentemente de suas próprias visões sobre espiritualidade e religião, concordaram que, sob certas condições, a espiritualidade deve ser incorporada na abordagem biopsicossocial atual na prática local e no treinamento de especialistas em psiquiatria.

BACKGROUND: The importance of having to consider the role of spirituality in health, mental health and psychiatry in South Africa has in particular been emphasized by recent legislation on African traditional health practice. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to explore the views and experience of local psychiatrists regarding the role of spirituality in South African specialist psychiatric practice and training. METHOD: This study is an explorative, descriptive, contextual, phenomenological and theory-generating, qualitative investigation. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with individual academic psychiatrists affiliated to a local university were conducted as primary data source. Measures to ensure trustworthiness included credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. RESULTS: Awareness of spirituality, "mindfulness" and an open-minded approach about spirituality should, according to participants, be facilitated in psychiatric practice and training. Six themes were identified through open coding. DISCUSSION: All participants, disregarding of their own views on spirituality and religion, agreed, that under certain conditions, spirituality must be incorporated into the current bio-psycho-social approach in the local practice and training of specialist in psychiatry.