Nursing Students’ Cheating – A nationwide endemic?
As a Dr. in Nursing and former Lecturer in Nursing, I feel compelled to highlight this critical issue. At least 5-10 times a semester in my Tutoring company, Nursing Tutoring Essentials, I field these enquiries; some vague, some blatant, but all the same: “will you write my assignment/will you make my assignment”? My most recent enquiry came this week in a series of emails that led to this crescendo, and I make no apologies for my response as the subsequent discussion will reveal…
Student Email Enquiry: Hi, I want to enquire that you guys do assignment or just tutoring service. I am a nursing student who is xtremely struggling with one of the nursing assignment. I am gonna email the question as well. Regards, [De-Identified]
NTE Response: Thank you for your enquiry. Nursing Tutoring Essentials offers both tutoring and proof reading services for nursing students. NTE may only offer proof reading services to undergraduate students and not editorial services due to university guidelines. I have attached the following links for your reference that may provide you with further guidance as to how we operate. Please note that proof reading only covers certain areas as it must be your own work, however tutoring can assist with helping you understand concepts and guides you and helps you understand what is expected in the assessment. [Links are then attached to website].
Student Email Enquiry: Hi, Sorry, what is proof reading?? I have my assignment ready from my friends who has already finished their course n has given to me. But I do not want exactly same so needs pharaphrasing. Plz let me know. Sent from my iPhone
NTE Response: Hallo and thank you for your response. Proof reading means that YOU DO YOUR OWN WORK and as a former topic coordinator and lecturer in nursing at a university, I would check it for you for grammatical inconsistencies, flowing of ideas and we have a robust discussion about where improvements could be made. The fact that you’ve obtained an assignment from someone else and want it paraphrased means that you will get caught, be accused of collusion and collaboration and placed on the academic register. Let alone that in nursing, it is supposed to be an ethical profession with no place for cheating. You are supposed to LEARN everything, so that when you go out on placements, patients are SAFE and you won’t KILL them with your lack of knowledge. This means that as a student, you are now eligible to be reported to not only your university, but also AHPRA and the Nursing & Midwifery Board for misconduct. I would strongly suggest that you obtain a tutor so you actually understand the concepts so you can write an assignment by yourself. Further, you write the assignment yourself so it contains your own ideas so you don’t break university rules of academic integrity.
The “Sydney Morning Herald” (June 2015: https://www.smh.com.au/education/nursing-students-putting-patients-at-risk-through-cheating-20150611-ghl90k.html ) has reported on this, stating that this places patients at risk due to such practices. One that Nursing Tutoring Essentials will be no part of. This article cites such examples of lack of English proficiency as a major hurdle as they “are not required to demonstrate English language proficiency in accordance with Nursing and Midwives’ Board-approved English language tests”. One such example is that of a Registered Nurse who was struck from the register when the “nurse” fed a patient dishwashing liquid as they were unable to read the label of the bottle. Then raises the question whether economic gain of universities places pressure on universities to pass students because of the financial incentives – however that is mere postulation. This is similar to that as reported by Lutkin (2016: https://jezebel.com/lots-of-nurses-are-cheating-their-way-through-school-w-1783913358) who quotes Dr Thomas Lancaster (based in the United Kingdom) who laments “that nurses may come through school without knowing how to properly read doctor’s notes and prescriptions, which could be fatal for a patient at some point”. Similarly in the United Kingdom, The Times (2016: https://www.independent.co.uk/student/student-life/Studies/thousands-of-nursing-students-caught-cheating-their-way-through-their-studies-in-the-last-3-years-a7146001.html ) has reported that “more than 1,700 nursing students have been caught cheating over the last three years”. However I refute some of the university’s answers being that it was put down to a simple case of naivety in the case of plagiarism. It is simple laziness. From the first lecture or tutorial, it is pointed out that if you get an idea from somewhere you must acknowledge the source. To copy directly from the source, surely as an intelligent person, capable of entry into university, it belies belief to think that copying from “Google” or a journal article directly (and I have marked papers where some students haven’t even bothered to change the fonts), let’s be real here!
To quote further from the times article, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (UK) were quoted as saying that their role was “protect patients and the public through efficient and effective regulation… there is no place for cheats in nursing or midwifery….. It is the responsibility of academic institutions to ensure individuals have legitimately passed all parts of their course before they are awarded a qualification and can apply for registration…. In addition to the rigorous registration processes we have in place to check everyone who joins the register is fit to practise safely in the UK, academic institutions must have systems in place to identify and swiftly address concerns about the conduct of any nursing or midwifery student, including cheating and plagiarism”.
As Allen et al. (2017, p. 1: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj327SNxeTaAhVV6LwKHdaeCk0QFghWMAo&url=https%3A%2F%2Fclinmedjournals.org%2Farticles%2Fianhc%2Finternational-archives-of-nursing-and-health-care-ianhc-3-074.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0IyvscQVU6YkPC4KA0D3TM ) describes so eloquently, “honesty should form the bedrock of any nursing education environment. This foundation is crucial to quality patient care and outcomes. Honesty is regarded as a basic ethical value and academic integrity is vital in the educational environment. In the nursing profession, it is especially important as the well-being of the patients in our care depend on it” and I argue this is what ethical practice and academic integrity should be derived from. Going further, they also support previous assertions that nursing is seen as one of the most honest professions and is one with “the highest ethical standards”. They too are concerned that if academic dishonesty is prevalent in the university environment, would it not transfer to the clinical setting? If this does indeed hold true, then the outcome would most certainly be harm to patients. As such, they too agree that there should be zero tolerance, which is in accordance with Nursing Tutoring Essentials policies. But does this message transfer in university settings when research suggests that it is “explained away” as nativity? Allen et al. (2017) explores the implications of academic dishonesty and again discuss how the nursing profession relies heavily on the moral integrity of Registered Nurses. Most strikingly (2017, p.) the “consequence of these undesired behaviours violates trust in the nursing profession to appropriately value human life and care for patients with honesty”.
While the universities have in place academic registers, academic integrity policies, and software such as TurnItIn and so on, at the end of the day, I believe morally it rests with the student to act with integrity and to act within accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Boards varying codes of practice and ethics. They should be immersing themselves in their schooling and becoming familiar with these and becoming reflective and critical thinkers. In this way I mean they should think about it in terms of “if this was a nurse that cheated their way through their degree, would I want that person nursing my family member”? If we were to personalise it like this, I wonder whether students would be so quick to cheat the system in order to pass?
That said, eventually you will be found out – on clinical placement. This is where you are observed by experienced Registered Nurses and believe me, nurses (although sad, and saved for another blog) are renown for “eating their young”. Moreover it rests with their clinical facilitator to really examine thoroughly the student’s knowledgebase. Do not be afraid to really question your intuition about the student – despite the tears, pleading, how much money they will lose, loss of face or shame. The fact remains that this is an endemic that is rising and nursing must remain a profession that the public places trust in and patient safety must be ensured.