Bachelor-prepared nurses are expected to be competent in moral deliberation and decision-making (MDD) in clinical practice. It is unclear, however, how this competence develops in nursing students. This study explores the development of nursing students’ competence for participating in organized forms of MDD in clinical practice, with an eye to improve nursing education. A cross-sectional descriptive survey was conducted by a questionnaire among first and fourth year bachelor nursing students and two cohorts of novice nurses of one bachelor program in nursing.