Cheating: An Ethical Concern for Nursing Educators

Alabama Nurse, Mar-May 2006 by Schmidt, Sally D

Nursing educators will continue to face cheating. Discussing and implementing measures to prevent cheating in the classroom requires the nurse educator's attention. Faculty, students, and society will benefit from preventing and decreasing cheating. The benefit may be an increased success rate on licensure exams and increased ability for critical thinking.

References

American Nurses Association. (2001). Code of ethics for nurses with interpretive statements. Washington, DC: American Nurses Publishing.

Brown, D. L. (2002). Cheating must be okay-everybody does it! Nurse Educator 27(1), 6-8.

Callahan D. (2004). The cheating culture: Why more Americans are doing wrong to get ahead. Orlando, FL: Hardcourt.

Griffin R. M. (2005) What makes people cheat? WebMD Feature. Retrieved November 11, 2005 from http:// www. webmd.com/content/Article/92/1 01458.htm? pagenumber=2

McCabe, D. In new CAI research conducted by Don McCabe. Retrieved November 11, 2005 from http://www.academic integrity.org/cai research.asp

Nightingale, F. (1969) Notes on nursing: What it is and what it is not. New York:

Stephens, J. (2005). Perspectives: The Carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching. Justice or just us?

What to do about cheating. Retrieved November 11, 2005 from http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/perspectives/sub.asp? key=245&subkey=577

by Sally D. Schmidt, MSN, RN

About the Author

Sally D. Schmidt, MSN, RN, is an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Fort Hays State University. She teaches pathophysiology and mental health nursing content in the undergraduate nursing program. In addition, Sally is the Coordinator of Quality and Pre-nursing Advising for the Department of Nursing. Sally is the President of KSNA , District 16 and serves as Membership Chair. She has attended the ANA House of Delegates as an elected representative for Kansas.

Reprinted with permission from the Kansas State Nurses Association.