Should moral reasoning serve as a criterion for student and resident selection?

The aim of medical school and residency training is to produce well-trained physicians. One problem has been in knowing which applicants to select. Ac ademic criteria have not correlated well with clinical performance. The cur rent study suggests consideration of an important variable that has been fo und to be associated with exemplary clinical performance. In recent studies a significant relationship between moral reasoning skills and clinical per formance has been found for medical students and residents and dental and n ursing students. A similar relationship has been found between levels of mo ral reasoning and malpractice claims among practicing orthopaedic surgeons. Rest has developed the Defining Issues Test, as a paper and pencil, object ive test for assessing moral reasoning. With it being deemed appropriate to assess applicants' scientific reasoning, the authors support the developme nt of an assessment of moral reasoning as a selection criterion For medical school and residency training, More research is required. If additional re search confirms the relationship of moral reasoning and superior clinical p erformance, then the results of moral reasoning tests might legitimately be used in the selection process.