Here and now: Lived experiences of professional nurses practising caring presence in a rural public hospital in the North West Province, South Africa.

Professional nurses experience practising caring presence as professionally and personally fulfilling, as an expression of their passion for the profession, as a way of portraying ethical care, as a willingness to be personally present and as a healing experience that involves commitment and taking care of patients holistically. Unprofessional, unethical behaviour and depersonalisation of patients were indicated as uncaring behaviour.