Embedding bioethics and anthropological reflection in pediatric nursing education: the experience of the University of Genoa – Istituto Giannina Gaslini

Abstract Nursing is characterized by ethical complexity, emotional intensity, and relational asymmetry. While bioethics is often included in nursing curricula, it is frequently taught in a fragmented or purely normative manner, leaving students insufficiently prepared to interpret and inhabit the moral dimensions of care. To describe a three-year educational pathway in Medical Humanities, philosophical anthropology, and bioethics developed for pediatric nursing students at the University of Genoa – Istituto Giannina Gaslini, and to explore the ethical themes articulated by students. The structure of the program, which integrated philosophical anthropology, ethics of care and vulnerability, narrative practices, and dialogical pedagogy, was outlined. A thematic analysis was conducted on students’ written reflections which were presented at a public conference at the end of the program. Students’ reflections reveal the emergence of a coherent ethical sensibility structured around key themes: embodied care, vulnerability as a shared human condition, relational presence, the moral significance of everyday clinical gestures, and the integration of technology within caring relationships. The educational experience fostered reflective depth, interpretive sensitivity, and an understanding of ethics as lived moral practice rather than abstract rule application. An integrated, humanistic approach to bioethics education can meaningfully contribute to the formation of pediatric nurses capable of ethical presence, moral judgment, and relational responsibility. Students can be helped to cultivate an ethically attuned professional identity responsive to vulnerability and care.