Snapshot of academic dishonesty among Malaysian nursing students: A single university experience

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate academic dishonesty among nursing students at a public university in Malaysia. METHODS: This study utilized a descriptive and cross-sectional design to evaluate academic dishonesty among nursing students using a purposive sampling method. The participants of this study consisted of 201 students from diploma (Year 2 and 3) and degree (Year 2 to Year 4) nursing programmes. A self-administered, validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Institutional ethics committee clearance was obtained prior to commencement of the study. RESULTS: The results of this study showed that 82.1% and 74.6% of nursing students had engaged at least once in an act of academic dishonesty in an academic or clinical setting, respectively. The most frequent form of academic dishonesty in an academic setting was plagiarism (77.1%). There was a significant association between gender and academic dishonesty in a clinical setting (p < 0.01). There was a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.603, p < 0.001) between academic dishonesty in academic and clinical settings. CONCLUSION: Academic dishonesty in both academic and clinical settings is a common problem among nursing students in Malaysia. Training on academic ethics is required in nursing curricula to improve the quality of education among nursing colleges and reduce the prevalence of unethical behaviours among students.