Teaching Christian values in a professional school using Good Samaritan model

Abstract

ABSTRACT Health care in the 21st century has emphasised science and technology-centred practice, which might lead to dehumanisation such that healthcare professionals come to treat patients less like persons and more like objects. A programme of humanities for healthcare professionals has been suggested as a solution to overcome the problem of dehumanisation. The OMNIBUS programme was developed in humanities curriculum for a Catholic nursing programme to foster students to have attributes of a ‘Good Samaritan’, a model for compassionate professional. This paper describes the effect of a four-year nursing programme with a humanities curriculum on students’ compassionate attributes including bioethics awareness, cultural competency, empathy, and spirituality. It was a secondary data analysis using time-series data collected from nursing students. The levels of bioethics awareness and spirituality among the nursing students have improved. They maintained cultural competencies and empathy skills over time. Developing a humanities curriculum can be used as a strategy to teach Christian values to professional students without emphasising religious aspects.