title: Is medical students' moral orientation changeable after preclinical medical education?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Moral orientation can affect ethical decision-making. Very few studies have focused on whether medical education can change the moral orientation of the students. The purpose of the present study was to document the types of moral orientation exhibited by medical students, and to study if their moral orientation was changed after preclinical education.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2007 to 2009, the Mojac scale was used to measure the moral orientation of Taiwan medical students. The students included 271 first-year and 109 third-year students. They were rated as a communitarian, dual, or libertarian group and followed for 2 years to monitor the changes in their Mojac scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In both first and third-year students, the dual group after 2 years of preclinical medical education did not show any significant change. In the libertarian group, first and third-year students showed a statistically significant increase from a score of 99.4 and 101.3 to 103.0 and 105.7, respectively. In the communitarian group, first and third-year students showed a significant decline from 122.8 and 126.1 to 116.0 and 121.5, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  During the preclinical medical education years, students with communitarian orientation and libertarian orientation had changed in their moral orientation to become closer to dual orientation. These findings provide valuable hints to medical educators regarding bioethics education and the selection criteria of medical students for admission.
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine, Fu-Jen Catholic University, No. 510 Chung-Cheng Road, Hsin-Chuang District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC. 049687@mail.fju.edu.tw
authors.forename: Chaou-Shune
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Kuo-Inn
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Tsou
authors.forename: Shu-Ling
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Ming-Shium
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.forename: Hsi-Chin
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chyi-Her
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods; D004992:Ethics, Medical / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D005610:Freedom; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035863:Moral Development; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D013624:Taiwan; D055815:Young Adult