Research article

Nursing Curricula Are Not Enough to Improve the Students' Moral Judgment Competence

Víctor Hugo Robles Francia

Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla, Calle 21 Sur No.1103, Barrio de Santiago, 72410 Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, Puebla, Mexico

Author E-mail: victorhugo.robles@upaep.mx; Tel: 52 (222) 229.94.00 (7431 ext.) Fax (222) 309 94 02

Abstract

It is assumed that the higher education positively impacts the student's moral reasoning. The purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of nursing curricula into improvement of students' moral judgment competence in a public university in Hidalgo, Sate of the Mexico country. Data was collected through survey exploration with the Moral Judgment Test completed by 384 nursing students of all semesters. The Moral Judgment Competence was evaluated by C index. The C index score was the same for senior and freshman students. The curricula did not improve the senior students’ C index, more hours of Social Humanistic content were not associated with the senior students’ C index score. Additionally, the results indicated that Moral Judgment Competence is the same in any gender of the students. Planned moral judgment competence in nursing curricula is necessary to improve students’ moral reasoning. In this paper, background, theoretical framework, results are discussed.

Keyword: moral judgment competence, nursing curricula, students, descriptive study, Mexican public university