ACADEMIC DISHONESTY AND CLINICAL MISCONDUCT AMONG NURSING STUDENTS IN A UNIVERSITY IN MEXICO

Abstract

Academic dishonesty is defined as any act be it intentional or not of deceit by a student with the objective of obtaining an unearned benefit or advantage. It is a common problem among students that poses a threat to the quality of learning by the students as well as the integrity of their evaluation, there is also a proposed risk to the continuation of these practices into their professional career. Objective: To evaluate correlation between academic dishonesty and professional misconduct among nursing students. Materials and methods: This study utilized a quantitative observational, prospective and cross-sectional analytic design to evaluate academic dishonesty among nursing students using a convenience sampling method. Sample. 161 students enrolled in a clinical module from a nursing bachelor program from a higher-level educational institution in Mexico. A self-administered, validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Results: A total of 94.4% of participants reported having committed at least one act of academic dishonesty and 85.7% reported having committed at least one act of clinical malpractice, the relationship between two practices showed a weak positive correlation based on Spearman correlation coefficient (r=.369, p<0.01) indicating that participating students who engaged in more practices of academic dishonesty had a higher probability of presenting behaviors of clinical malpractice. Conclusion: Behaviors of academic dishonesty as well as clinical misconduct are common among nursing students in Mexico, and a positive correlation was found between the two. It is important to create changes to the curriculum or teaching practices to better this problem.