Letters The self-perceived identity of Spanish geriatric nurses: Comment on Carlson et al. (2014) Marı ´a Lourdes Jime ´ nez Navascue ´s a , Aintzane Orkaizagirre Go ´ mara b, *, Concha Germa ´n Bes b a University School of Nursing of Soria, Department of Nursing, University of Valladolid, Soria, Spain b Area of Nursing, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain With reference to a recently published article entitled ‘‘Registered Nurses’ Perception of Their Professional Work in Nursing Homes and Home-Based Care: A focus Group Study’’ (Carlson et al., 2014) we would like to congratulate the authors for portraying the image of geriatric nurses from a positive point of view. We would also like to buttress the result of their study with our research carried out within the framework of a doctoral thesis: The Institutionalisation of Registered Nurses in Spain 1977–2010 (Jime ´ nez, 2013). We evaluated certain key elements in the development of specialisation courses for Geriatric Nursing in Spain. We developed a qualitative analysis designed to understand how the professionals view their work within the framework of care for the elderly. The sample consists of registered nurses, lecturers, consultants, members of the Spanish Scientific Geriatric Nursing and Gerontological Society, geriatric doctors and directors of hospitals and nursing homes. In three areas, our findings coincided with that of the authors of the article: The establishment of long term relations, nurses going beyond their technical skills and finding an equilibrium with a sense of the society in mind. It was concluded that for nurses’ care for the elderly, the following factors were essential: a chance to establish long term relationship and develop professional autonomy merged with integral attention. Our participants also outlined that it is important that the nurse be part of the social network of the elderly, showing them affection thereby facilitating well-being which in turn enables them to feel loved, valued and accepted by others (Vega and Gonza ´ lez, 2009): ‘‘They are so important to me . . . a family that I have got over there . . .’’ (l.1-7) ‘‘One has an intense personal relationship . . . knowl- edge for life’’ (l.19) In our study, the Geriatric Health Care professionals also emphasised the complex nature of caring for the aged which requires special training that guarantees optimal attention: ‘‘It’s the most complex and difficult issue to deal with’’ (l.19) International Journal of Nursing Studies 52 (2015) 1140–1141 A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 28 February 2015 Received in revised form 11 March 2015 Accepted 13 March 2015 * Corresponding author at: Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, C/ Domingo Miral s/n, Zaragoza 50009, Spain. Tel.: +34 976761751. E-mail address: aintzaneorkaizagirre@hotmail.es (A.O. Go ´ mara). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Nursing Studies journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/ijns http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.03.010 0020-7489/ß 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.