Let’s talk honestly about dishonesty: A qualitative study exploring the intersection of values and academic dishonesty in nursing students

IF 3.3 3区医学 Q1 NURSING

Nurse Education in Practice Pub Date : 2025-07-05 DOI:10.1016/j.nepr.2025.104465

Elena Maoz , Efrat Danino

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

This study aimed to examine nursing students' perceptions of real acts of academic dishonesty, in relation to their personal values and professional principles.

Background

Despite awareness of the ethical and institutional consequences of academic dishonesty, its prevalence remains high among nursing students. This discrepancy between ethical awareness and actual behavior poses a significant concern in nursing education.

Design

A qualitative design was employed to explore nursing students' (N = 11) experiences with academic dishonesty and the rationalization of the behaviors they employed.

Methods

The study used self-reported data from nursing students, who reflected on their personal values, professional ethics and past encounters with academic dishonesty, exploring how these factors influenced their perceptions of the phenomenon.

Results

The findings revealed that students perceive themselves as honest individuals who value integrity. While they uphold strong personal values and professional principles related to academic integrity, they often rationalize their behavior when confronted with past incidents of academic dishonesty. These rationalizations include minimizing the severity of unethical behavior through softer terminology, justifying dishonest actions under perceived mitigating circumstances, categorizing unethical acts by severity and attributing part of the responsibility to human nature or institutional factors that inadvertently enable such behavior.

Conclusions

The study highlights the need for a comprehensive educational intervention to address academic dishonesty among nursing students. Such programs should focus on reinforcing the ethical implications of dishonest behavior, challenging students’ rationalizations and promoting alignment between personal values and professional responsibilities to foster a culture of honesty and accountability in nursing practice.

查看原文本刊更多论文

让我们诚实地谈谈不诚实：一项探讨护理学生价值观与学术不诚实交集的定性研究

目的本研究旨在探讨护生对学术不诚实行为的认知，并将其与个人价值观和专业原则联系起来。尽管人们意识到学术不诚实的道德和制度后果，但其在护理专业学生中的患病率仍然很高。这种道德意识与实际行为之间的差异在护理教育中引起了重大关注。设计采用质性设计探讨护生（N = 11）的学术不诚实经历及其行为合理化。方法研究采用护理专业学生的自我报告数据，这些学生反映了他们的个人价值观、职业道德和过去遇到的学术不诚实行为，探讨这些因素如何影响他们对这一现象的看法。结果调查结果显示，学生认为自己是诚实的个体，重视诚信。虽然他们坚持与学术诚信有关的强烈的个人价值观和职业原则，但当面对过去的学术不诚实事件时，他们往往会为自己的行为找理由。这些合理化包括通过更温和的术语将不道德行为的严重程度降到最低，在感知到的减轻情况下为不诚实的行为辩护，根据严重程度对不道德行为进行分类，并将部分责任归因于无意中促成此类行为的人性或制度因素。结论本研究强调了对护生学术不诚信问题进行综合教育干预的必要性。这样的项目应该侧重于加强不诚实行为的道德内涵，挑战学生的合理化，促进个人价值观和专业责任之间的协调，以培养护理实践中的诚实和责任文化。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Nurse Education in Practice NURSING-

CiteScore

5.40

自引率

9.40%

发文量

180

审稿时长

51 days

期刊介绍： Nurse Education in Practice enables lecturers and practitioners to both share and disseminate evidence that demonstrates the actual practice of education as it is experienced in the realities of their respective work environments. It is supportive of new authors and will be at the forefront in publishing individual and collaborative papers that demonstrate the link between education and practice.