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Cathal T Gallagher, Assessment of levels of moral reasoning in pharmacy students at different stages of the undergraduate curriculum, International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, Volume 19, Issue 5, October 2011, Pages 374–380, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2042-7174.2011.00121.x
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Abstract
The principal aim of this study was to demonstrate the maturation of moral reasoning among pharmacy students as they progress through a 4-year degree programme at a school of pharmacy in the UK.
The moral reasoning of 332 students from across all 4 years of the Master of Pharmacy (M Pharm) degree, together with 13 faculty members, was assessed using Rest's Defining Issues Test over a 1-week period.
The results demonstrate clear increase moral reasoning scores through all years of study and on into membership of the faculty. This trend was highly significant (t = 7.09; df = 1; P < 0.001). The coefficient of variability (R2) was calculated as 0.92 using linear least squares regression. There was a wide range of moral reasoning scores at each educational level: the top 18% of the Level 1 cohort achieved higher scores than the bottom 11% of faculty.
The students at a school of pharmacy at a UK university experienced significant moral growth throughout the course of their studies. A further, longitudinal study of the cohort, which attempts to correlate the moral development with age, sex, level of education and mode of delivery of moral education is warranted.
