Connecting human rights education and dignity-based health and social care education

Upholding human rights and ensuring dignity-in-care are key concerns for health and social care. Aiming to bridge current disconnects, this article focuses on an intersection between education in support of human rights and education in support of dignity for nursing students/practitioners. It provides an example of how human rights education interventions can help translate the dignity–rights connection in international human rights into a discursive context in which dignity is already a core professional value. Drawing on data collection with primarily undergraduate nursing students in Scotland, UK, the article explores knowledge and perceptions of human rights and dignity. It argues that integrating both in educational interventions can illustrate the distinctiveness of different strands of discourse, and at the same time, help connect to professional ethical discourse whilst opening a path towards greater human rights accountability. The research has implications for understanding the applied value of an interlocking human rights law-and-dignity approach.