Development of moral judgment and its relationship to the education and training of dietitians

The purpose of this study was to compare the development of moral judgment in 171 dietetics students before and after training from internships (n = 96), coordinated undergraduate programs (n = 61), and preprofessional practice programs (n = 14). The results of the study supported the research hypothesis that greater moral development growth would occur in supervised practices that allow students more experiences promoting moral growth, such as clinical rotations with patients, peer discussions on ethical issues, and access to instructors trained in ethics. Analysis of covariance indicated differences in the posttest scores of the three groups. Student scores for the internship and the coordinated undergraduate program were significantly different. Scores of preprofessional practice program students did not differ from those of the other groups. Internship programs offered more time in clinical rotations, used trained ethicists more, and used more methods to introduce ethics into the curriculum than did the other programs.