Viaa Christian University of Applied Sciences is actively participating in the development and professionalisation of education, healthcare, social work and theology by offering Bachelor programs in Education in Primary schools (age 4-12), Nursing, Social Work, Theology and Teacher Education in Religion.
Viaa performs research through its lectorates. These lectorates are scientific research and education units chaired by a Professor. Viaa houses the lectorate Societal Issues, the lectorate Moral Formation and the lectorate Healthcare and Spirituality. The lectorate Healthcare and Spirituality performs research within the broad area of healthcare in the Netherlands. The research program of this lectorate is pointing on competence development of health care workers in spirituality and spiritual care. This competence development is specifically focusing on attitude development, integration of spiritual care in the primary health care processes and on professionalisation and quality assurance of spiritual care.
Prof. René van Leeuwen, RN, PhD
EPICC Strategic Partner
Dr. René van Leeuwen is a Professor at Christian University of Applied Sciences Viaa in Zwolle, Netherlands. As a Professor he is leading the Lectorate Healthcare and Spirituality, which is a research unit of Viaa that is researching spirituality and spiritual care within the broad context of healthcare in the Netherlands. The research programme is focusing on competence development in spiritual care in nursing and on ethics of care. René has published internationally about spiritual care in nursing. He developed the Spiritual Care Competence Scale (SCCS) which measures nurses’ competences in the delivery of spiritual care. The lectorate is involved in the development and evaluation of teaching methods of spiritual care in nursing, especially regarding interactive and cooperative online education and in simulations programmes.