Moral development of first-year pharmacy students in the United Kingdom.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the moral development of pharmacy students over their first academic year of study at a university in the United Kingdom. METHODS Pharmacy students completed Defining Issues Test (DIT) at the start of their first year (phase 1) and again at the end of their first year (phase 2) of the program. RESULTS Pharmacy students (N=116) had significantly higher moral reasoning at the beginning of their first year than by the end of it. Scores differed by students' gender and age; however, these findings differed between phase 1 and phase 2. CONCLUSION First-year pharmacy students in the United Kingdom scored lower on moral reasoning than did pharmacy students in the United States and Canada.