Academic Dishonesty and Integrity

NUR 391

Professional Ethics

Module 2 Discussion

Academic Dishonesty

Most, if not all, students have heard about or witnessed some type academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty includes such things as cheating on assignments, quizzes, or tests; asking or hiring someone to write papers; purchasing papers from an online source; plagiarism; faking an illness to then take a quiz or exam at a later time, to name a few. While academic dishonesty is not looked upon favorably by students doing their own work or the professors who make the assignments, there are times when it is necessary for students to come forward in order to make the professor aware of a situation. Professors try to be vigilant in monitoring for such things, but at times, may be unaware of a particular situation. For example, in a class that I teach, there was a apparently talk amongst the students about two student who were “planning” to cheat on the final. However, students only came forward after the semester ended to say, “Did you know that Sue and Betty (names have been changes) were cheating on the final?” Long story short…. Professors try in every way to maintain academic integrity in their classrooms, but students try to come up with new and innovative ways to cheat each semester. In this particular case, no basis was found for cheating and 1 of the 2 students ended up failing the class anyway. It would have been helpful to know about this “plan” ahead of time….in fact, it was a “new” way of cheating.

I think we can all benefit from this discussion because integrity carries into the workplace for every nurse. For example, sometime in your career, if it has not already happened, you will work with a colleague who either will falsify a document, not complete work correctly or, has arrived at work impaired. So, what will you do? How will you address this type of dishonesty or integrity?

The topic for the discussion board this week is twofold. First, share with each other at least one instance in which you were aware of another students cheating AND discuss whether or not you brought it to any one’s attention; specifically the professor. If you did, was it before or after the instance? Second, share with each other if you have witnessed a breach of integrity in the workplace regarding false documentation, work completed improperly, or impairment (either chemical or psychological). Again, how did you see this handled or how did you handle it yourself?

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