Role-playing or jurisprudential inquiry model: A comparison of two active learning methods in teaching of professional ethics to nursing students

Introduction: education of professional ethics is a necessary section of nursing curriculum. To change attitude and function, traditional educational methods are not effective versus active models. This study conducted to comparison of two active learning educational models; role-playing with jurisprudential inquiry model  Methods: in this quasi-experimental study, 79 nursing students selected by stage sampling. Half of them received their education via roleplaying and other half student received it by jurisprudential inquiry model. Data collected via a writing test in two stages. The test designed and validated according to ethical reasoning resources and analyzed with SPSS software. Results: paired t-test did not show any significant difference between mean scores of ethics in 4 weeks after education with 3 months later. Mean score of professional ethics in related with colleges, 3 month after education, showed a significant difference among jurisprudential inquiry model group (p=0.03).  Conclusions: jurisprudential inquiry model is more effective than role-playing in long-term remembering of professional ethics of nursing students, especially in relationship with colleges. In short-term, both are effective, equally.