Rehumanizing Holistic Nursing Education: From Mindfulness and Spiritual Care to Transformative Clinical Formation

Abstract

Holistic nursing education is increasingly important in preparing nurses who are not only clinically competent, but also reflective, compassionate, spiritually sensitive, and culturally responsive. This commentary argues that mindfulness and spiritual care should not be positioned as isolated curricular additions, but as central elements of transformative clinical formation. Drawing on recent scholarship in holistic nursing, nursing education and spiritual care, the article highlights three critical issues: the risk of reducing mindfulness to a stress-management technique, the persistent gap between spiritual care knowledge and clinical enactment, and the need for culturally inclusive pedagogical models. It further suggests that future research should move beyond short-term self-reported outcomes by employing longitudinal, mixed-method, and practice-based evaluations. Reframing holistic nursing education as transformative clinical formation may offer a more rigorous direction for curriculum innovation, faculty development, and holistic nursing science.