Lost Integrity: When Nursing Students Cheat

[J.Adderton]

Academic integrity, or cheating, is any act or behavior that gives a student an unfair advantage for the sake of improving academic performance. Cheating is not new in colleges and continues to be a problem in nursing programs. Previous surveys of enrolled nursing students report between 75% to 90% have engaged in dishonest acts at some point in their nursing program. The International Center for Integrity and McCabe surveyed 71,300 undergraduate nursing students between 2002-2015, excluding first year and two-year programs. The survey results are eye-opening with 39% admitting to cheating on tests, 62% admitting to cheating on written assignments, and 68% admitting to both cheating on both tests and written assignments. McCabe (2009) found the individual level of cheating in nursing programs is lower than other disciplines, but collaborative cheating is significantly higher.

It’s Not Cheating, It is Justified

Research has shown a correlation between the rationalization or deflecting blame and academic dishonesty. Examples of students justifying their cheating behavior include:

• Everybody does it.
• No one understands references and APA citations.
• It is not stated in the syllabus.
• The faculty want us to fail.
• Not sure if it is cheating or not.
• I won’t be kicked out- I am paying to be in this program.
• The instructors have favorites and I am not one of them.

Because of the stress and time in nursing programs, forming close bonds and loyalty to one or a group of students is common. Cheating may also be justified by “helping the group” through sharing what was on an exam to other students who have not taken. Students may also share answers to assignments to a group because “no one understood this assignment”.

Student Collusion

The most common form of cheating among nursing students is plagiarism and collusion. Academic collusion is when more than one person contributes to a work (exam, paper, assignment, clinical paperwork etc) that is submitted as the work for one person. Group work, assigned with the intention of multiple contributors is different from assignments faculty intend to be completed individually. Examples of collusion include:

• Three students in a clinical group are assigned to write a care plan for the patient they were assigned. Three friends in the group decided to pick the same nursing diagnosis so they could “collaborate” on the care plan.
• Students were assigned an essay describing 5 nursing theories. The essay assigned is 8 pages and 5 students decide to each take a theory and share research with the others.
• A case study is assigned for 5% of the overall grade. One student completed the assignment and shared with other students to give them a “point of reference”.

Discussing lecture and class content with other students is usually encouraged and beneficial. However, sharing your work with another student as part of their assignment or using the work of another student as your own crosses diminishes academic honesty and is collusion.

Forms of Academic Dishonesty

Students commonly engage in these four types of academic dishonesty:

1. Cheating- unauthorized use of information in completing academic activities (crib notes, texting someone outside of an exam for answers, signaling or whispering during a test).
2. Plagiarism (intentional and unintentional)- taking another person's words or ideas and passing it off as your own (cut and pasting of material, failure to cite a source, poor quoting).
3. Fabrication or falsification- unauthorized creating, altering or reporting information in an academic activity (fabricating sources and references, the omission of information, using someone else's login ID and password).
4. Sabotage- disrupting or destroying another person’s work so the other person cannot successfully complete an academic activity (not contributing to a group assignment, stealing another’s property i.e. computer, textbook).

It is important to understand the different types of academic dishonesty. Even if a student unintentionally engages in a form of cheating, they are still guilty and may face the same consequences as if their actions were intentional. It is also important to be familiar with the college’s and/or program’s specific policies addressing academic dishonesty.

The second part of this series will discuss why students risk the potential sanctions and penalties to engage in academic dishonesty. We will also explore the potential moral, ethical and academic consequences of cheating.

How have you been impacted by academic dishonesty?

References and Resources:

ACPA College Student Education International, The cheating epidemic: Reducing academically dishonest behaviors amongst college students (2015)

Edmunds, M. & Scudder, L. (2009). Academic dishonesty: what does cheating say about our future nurses article review. Medscape article review and commentary

Wideman, M. (2011).  Caring or collusion? Academic dishonesty in a school of nursing. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 41(2), 28-43

Northern Illinois University Tutorial- Academic Integrity

[J.Adderton, BSN, MSN]

2 hours ago, stockmanjr said:

Sadly professors are held to a different standard. I had a professor who decided that the test bank answers weren't correct so it was her own answers that she went with. Needless to say only 3 out of 60 people passed the final and the highest grade was an 80. The punishment for the professor was that she was forced to take a sabbatical and now she's teaching again.

I can relate to your frustration. I taught in a 2 year program and reported concern of another faculty member simply printing a test I developed several years ago and using without revising questions to match the content covered in her class. The same faculty member printed an previous test I had given and distributed to "her favorite students" as a practice test. There were multiple examples of this same instructor creating ethical issues and unprofessional behavior. I was actually reprimanded by the program director and was told "there is no policy that states she cannot use your exams for practice. I eventual met with the Dean of Instruction and my concerns were validated. I was told this was a "pattern of behavior" for this faculty member. The tenured teacher continued to teach, without consequences and my contract was not renewed when I was up for tenure.

It was eye opening to realize not all nursing instructors are educated on how to teach and effective teaching strategies. I think first, you should focus on your success and let go of what you cannot control. It is so hard not to become disillusioned but you have such a great goal to work towards.

[DowntheRiver]

I did NOT cheat, but I've been through a cheating scandal.

During my final semester some of my co-hort was busted for cheating during the HESI final. We took it in two groups and there was a 1.5 hour gap between the first and second group. People in the first group were giving people in the second group the questions and answers via email. So, for something like 50% of the second group, test scores improved 20+ points. I don't know how it was discovered, but someone came forward from the first group and reported the email. I believe from there some people came forward and admitted to cheating. Anybody whose score significantly went up was questioned. My score had gone up 14 points but I was able to prove that I was not on the email chain.

I don't know how the students who cheated were reprimanded but we were short about 10-ish people at graduation aside from the 2 people who admitted failing.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

Literally everyone in my advanced patho class cheated except for me. Literally everyone. I did not get an A. I worked my butt off for a B+. Many cheaters received undeserved As. There was other rampant cheating in nursing school. Much more cheating than I had ever seen in my first degree in the 1990s. This is why I didnt have friends in nursing school. I was fine with it, but had I been younger I don't know if I would have handled it so well.

When it came to taking the NCLEX, I did not have to study much. I scored very high on the exit exams and I was one of the very few in my class to do so.

[DowntheRiver]

3 minutes ago, FolksBtrippin said:

Literally everyone in my advanced patho class cheated except for me. Literally everyone....This is why I didnt have friends in nursing school. I was fine with it, but had I been younger I don't know if I would have handled it so well.

It appears the common thread here is that people who stayed independent in nursing school were less likely to cheat.

[FolksBtrippin, BSN, RN]

On 5/3/2019 at 1:52 PM, JKL33 said:

Although every adult is responsible for their own ethical behavior, one of the issues that must be addressed right alongside student cheating is that which amounts to cheating at teaching, if you ask me:

Students don't get on the financial hook for tens of thousands of dollars in order to look at a publisher's absolutely useless powerpoint and possibly hear a little bit of commentary from someone with a PhD but very little (if any) expertise in the specific subject matter, only to be tested with questions from a publisher's test bank. [I've heard the rationales for that latter trend and I reject them mostly.]

It doesn't bother me so much that they use the publishers power points, as long as they have reviewed the info and can answer questions about it. More than once in my program I asked a question about info on the power point, and my prof had no clue. One time my prof was like "oh don't worry about that, it won't be on the test." What?

[NurseNinja1990]

After I left my final last semester, I heard one girl literally had her phone out during the exam and was looking up answers. I felt cheated because I spent so much time studying, but took solace in that she is going to be in serious trouble when it comes time for boards if she hasn't learned the material.

[0.5GPA, ADN, CNA]

I don’t how you could cheat on a test. At my school you can’t wear hoodies, jackets or anything like that during an exam. No watches, hats etc

You have to show you have empty pockets before you can go into the room on a test day (no phones, wallets keys nothing)

There are three versions of the test set up ahead of time so where you choose to sit your not next to the same test. (Ext test A, B and C. If you pick a seat with test B, they have it set up where you are not near another test B)

The room has at least 5 or 6 facility walking around the room while the test are out. I honestly have no idea where to start on cheating if I was going to lol

maybe other schools are not as anal about that?

[beachynurse, ASN, BSN]

I simply can't imagine cheating in school. I hav e always prided myself on my honesty and my integrity, and will continue to do so. It honestly troubles me that there are colleagues out there that may have cheated, and do not deserve to have the credentials that I worked so hard to have. I imagine the potential for harm that they may be able to do to a patient with the lack of actual knowledge.

I am an instructor at a local community college, and if I catch a student cheating, I go for the maximum penalty. Do I really want someone in the medical field to care for me or a loved one, who cheated there way through school? Absolutely not.

[rnhopeful82, ASN, RN]

At my school, we need to put everything along the wall during a test, no smart watches on, they hand out the scrap paper and take it back after the test. That being said, I am sure some people from the morning class share info with a night class friend and vice versa. My friends and I don't help each other at all, we figure if we had to suffer and go in blind, so do the rest of us hahahaha. I am going into my last semester and currently have a 3.88 and my friends are somewhere around B/B+ average so none of us are feeling too bad about actually working for our grades.