Impacting moral reasoning in allied health students.

This study was designed to assess the relative impact of a course in biomedical ethics on the moral reasoning skills of junior-level students in a school of allied health. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group design was used. The course was found to significantly impact principled moral reasoning scores as measured by Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT). Male-female differences in DIT score changes were also suggested. The nature of the instruction appears paramount to possible changes in moral thinking, indicating that moral education programs need to emphasize dilemma discussion in their formats.