Nurses have deep relationships with patients. They encounter a lot of situations in their work environment during the day.These situations require ethical decisionmaking. The ability of ethical reasoningis necessary for moral decision making. This study aimed to compare the ability of ethical reasoning of nursing students and nurses working in the teaching hospitals affiliated to Ilam University of Medical Sciences. This descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2017 in the teaching hospitals affiliated to Ilam University of Medical Sciences. The sample consisted of 122 third- and fourth year-nursing students at Ilam Nursing and Midwifery Faculty as well as 380 nurses who were selected randomly. Data were collected using nursing dilemma test questionnaire. The descriptive-analytic statistical tests and SPSS (version 24) were used for data analysis. Findings showed that there was no significant difference between mean scores of ethical reasoning of nursing students and nurses (p = 0.803). Moreover, there was no significant relationship between the level of ethical reasoning and individual characteristics of nursing students and nurses such as age, gender, educational level, marital status, work experience and working area of employed nurses (P> 0.05). Educational programs such as workshops and continuous education courses will be useful in developing ethical reasoning for nursing students and nurses.

Keywords: ethical reasoning, hospital, nurse, nursing students