Fostering Nursing Students' Moral Decision-Making Through Use of an Affective Learning Module

The emphasis on disciplinary and preventive approaches to combating academic misconduct does little to foster student professional identity and core nursing value formation.

There is a need for pedagogy designed to navigate moral decision-making within ambiguous areas of practice as nursing students integrate personal and professional values while becoming a nurse.

Rest's theory of moral development offers a framework for constructing purposeful affective learning activities that operationalize moral sensitivity, judgment, motivation, and character, whereas Krathwohl's theory provides a means to identify affective learning objectives. Offering prelicensure nursing students an opportunity to discuss, reflect on, and consider actions and consequences associated with academic and practice-based situations forms the basis for this affective learning module that fosters connections between academic and professional behaviors of integrity.

Rest's theoretical model provides a viable structured approach to moral development. Curriculum designed to engage moral decision-making offers an innovative approach to cultivating student integrity.