Immediate and Subsequent Actions Against Cheating in Exams
Nursing is a sensitive profession that requires high moral standing and professional behavior to deliver nursing care effectively. Nurses need to abide to standards practice, ethics, law, and code and professional guidelines in order to uphold professional behavior when undertaking their duties (Park, Park, & Jang, 2013). The codes of ethics are developed for nurses to enhance behavior consistency and continuously maintain and improve nursing care delivery. The laws, ethics, and professional guideline therefore create a framework of behavior, decision making, and values that are fundamental for quality health care to all people. They also provide a point of reference for nurses that can be used to reflect on their conduct. Failure by nurses to abide to codes of ethics, law, and professional guidelines can threaten the human life, lead to decline in social value and reduced economic progress (Kusnoor & Falik, 2013). Therefore, it is important for nurses both in schools and practicing to abide with professional guidelines, ethics, and laws for quality health care delivery. The following essay discusses the ethics, laws, and professional guidelines in relation to a case study of a nursing student intending to cheat on an online exam. The student is contacting to get screenshots for the questions prior to starting the exam so that the student can have an advantage when handling the exam. The essay will involve discussing the immediate action, subsequent actions, and most application sections of Australian Registered Nurses Standards for Practice and Nursing and Midwifery Board code of conducts applicable in the case study. The easy will also involve outlining the possible legal and future implications of the student behavior.
The immediate action to take against a student intending to cheat is to deny the action. Denying the action will stop the student intention to access the exam and gain undue advantage. The student being contacted and the one contacting should be honest. Dishonesty action in this case can be selected by both students if one agrees to send the screenshot while the other uses the information in the screenshot to cheat in the exam. The student can be denied access by not sending the exam screenshot. This can be done by refusing to send the screenshots and stating that the action is consequential. Sending exam screenshots to a student who is about to take the test is cheating and dishonest. Exams are test and are meant to demonstrate an individual skills and qualifications within a framework. The intention to improve marks condition as compared to what is the intended is cheating and leads to incorrect assessment. Cheating is dishonesty and dangerous to nursing profession. This is different from other professions such as anthropology or philosophy as nursing is directly related to human life and any form of cheating can lead to loss of human life or deteriorating health condition. For this reason the student should be denied to access the exam before undertaking it. This will ensure the student does not adopt dishonest behavior that can be taken forward to the workplace endangering patients’ lives.
The Importance of Ethics, Law, and Professional Guidelines in Nursing Practice
In the subsequent actions to a nursing student intending to get exam leakage, is to address the impact of behavior and the importance of being ethical, undertaking legal action and developing a professional character. Cheating in exams has negative impact to an individual both as a student and practicing nurse. As a student, cheating in an exam can have several consequences. First, cheating can lead to the student’s examination being canceled. Whenever cheating is detected by the lecturer, the exam is canceled on the basis that the student had prior information about the questions on the exam file. Secondly, exam cheating can lead to the student being issued with a warning from the institution of learning. The school management issue warning to students who cheat in exam as examination rules are very strict. The student can also be expelled for good or temporarily expelled. Being expelled for good can lead to a student dream to become a nurse being shuttered. Cheating in exam also has negative impact to the institution of learning. The school examination objective is not met when student undertake them with prior knowledge of what is contained in the exams (Raines et al., 2011). The exams objective to assess and evaluate student performance or qualification on a given subject is not met. The school therefore produces nurses who are not qualified practice nursing. The second action is to explain the important of abiding with ethics. It is important to act ethically both as a student and a practicing nurse. Ethics are moral code that governs an individual behaviors or conduct of an activity. Ethics are important to nursing profession and are fundamental to creating a favorable environment of mutual respect and trust in the health care centers (Cluskey, Ehlen, & Raiborn, 2011). Adhering to principles is beneficial to foundational ethical decision making in nursing. The third action for take for a nursing student cheating is to explain the importance of following law and acting lawfully. Intending or cheating in an exam is unlawful both to the school and the government. The school’s examination rules and regulations prohibit any form of exam cheating. To government, cheating is a form of criminal offense. Being lawful enables a nurse to work with the scope of practice that is a foundational guide for nurses to excellent practice. Another sequential action to undertake to a student intending to cheat in an exam is to explain the importance of developing a professional character. A professional character is important to nursing practice. Nurses in health centers work as part of a team to deliver health care and professionalism enhance collaboration and cooperation of the team. Professionalism in nursing means combinations of qualification, standards of conduct and ethics to create a healthy working environment to deliver nursing care and enhance wellbeing (Cluskey et al., 2011). Undertaking these activities will therefore help the student realize the importance of maintaining honesty while in school and after school.
The Australian Registered Nurses Standards for Practice
A nursing student intention to cheat in an exam is against the sections outlined on Australian Registered Nurses Standards for Practice, Code of Conducts for Nurses and ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses. The Australian Registered Nurses Standards of Practice requires nurses to follow a framework that is evidence based and person centered with supportive, preventative, formative, restoration, curative and palliative elements (Stonecypher & Willson, 2014). Registered nurses are regulated health professionals and are accountable and responsible to Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), 2017). Nursing require continuous thinking and analysis for thoughtful development and maintaining of relationships when providing nursing care (Mariano, 2013). Therefore, standards of practice are important to offer a comprehensive assessment, plan development, implementation, and evaluation of nursing care outcomes. In this respect, the standards of practice related to cheating or intention to cheat are standard 1, 2, 3, and 6. Standard of practice 1 outlines that a nurse thinks critically and does nursing practice analysis. Section 1.4 requires nurses to comply with regulations, policies, legislation, and other standards when making decisions. Exam cheating undermines the ability of the student to develop critical thinking making it hard to practice nursing effectively (Keyko, 2014). Exam dishonest is also illegal and the student does not comply with the school guidelines, regulations, and rules governing the exam. The Standard of Practice 2 states that a nurse engages in professional and therapeutic relationships. Honesty is important for nurses in order to maintain relationships that are trustful with the patients. Section 2.1 requires nurses to establish sustain and conclude relationships in a professional way. Cheating leads to dishonesty that breaks up trust and ruin relationships. The Standard of Practice 3 states that a nurse maintains capability for practice. Section 3.3 requires nurses to use lifelong approach to learning for continuous professional development. A nursing student who is not devoted to pursue lifelong learning and testing is likely to face challenges in nursing. The other standard of practice related to cheating in exams is standards 6. This standard requires nurses to provide safe, responsive, and appropriate quality nursing care. Section 6.1 states that the nursing practice should be comprehensively safe and quality to achieve intended outcomes. In addition, section 6.5 states that the nursing practice should be undertaken within legal framework. Therefore cheating in exams is against the Australian Registered Nursing Standards for Practice.
The ICN Code of Ethics for Nurses
The INC Code of Ethics sets a moral framework for nursing profession. The act of cheating or intending to cheat in a nursing exam can be rated as violation of codes of ethics in nursing profession. The act violate value statement 1 that states nurses should value quality nursing care to everybody. It is the nurse responsibility to ensure they have skills, knowledge and skills to provide nursing care competently (Coren, 2011). The nurses ensure that their engagement is in accordance to agreed practice of standards. Secondly, cheating in exam violates the value statement 6 that require nurses to value culture of safety. Valuing culture enables nurses to practice safe working environment and practice within their limitation by recognizing their knowledge and skills in order to avoid situation where their ability to delivering nursing care can be impaired. Another section of codes of ethic violated by attempt to cheat is value statement 7. The value statement states that nurses should value ethical information management. Generation and management of patient information should be performed with integrity and professionalism. This require nurses to commit to accurate, non judgmental of the health information. A nurse who is dishonest with information can lead to offering the wrong health treatment to a patient (Kangasniemi, Pakkanen, & Korhonen, 2015).
The Codes of Professional Conduct govern the nurse behavior while acting professionally to capacity. The Code of Professional Conduct requires nurses to behave exemplary when performing their duties (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2014). Exam cheating undermines the professional conduct statement 1 that requires nurses to practice in competent manner. Cheating in exams also undermines conduct value statement 3 that require nurses to conduct and practice nursing care in accordance with laws. Nurses are required to be familiar with relevant laws and only engage on practice that is legally bided. The act exam cheating also violates code of professional statement 6 that states all nurses should be honest, impartial, and accurate with information. Lastly, cheating in exams violates the code of conduct statement 9 that require nurses to build and maintain a community of trust and confidence. Cheating is dishonesty and it ruins public trust of the profession. Nursing students should develop conduct of professionalism in order to align their behavior with nursing profession requirements.
Cheating in exams behavior has legal and future implication to a nursing student. First, the student can be charged by the nursing school for exam rules and regulation violation. This can lead to student examinations canceled or being expelled from the nursing school (Yachison, Okoshken, & Talwar, 2017). The student can be charged by the government for conspiracy to defraud. The student criminal charge can be based on the intention to use dishonest means in order to bring a certain advantage to results. On the other side, cheating in exams can have severe implications to the health care sector. Cheating in exams leads to nursing schools producing unqualified or incompetent nurses (Gough, 2014). Incompetent nurses are dangerous to human life. They risk the human life because they are not qualified to provide the services. Incompetent nurses also lead to decline of social values and possibly poor economic performance. Nurses have a role in maintaining social values and enhancing wellbeing. Offering poor nursing care can lead to decline in human being ability to work that lead to decline in economic performance (Schmidt, MacWilliams, & Neal-Boylan, 2017).
In conclusion, cheating or intending to cheat in a nursing exam is a n undermining behavior to standards of nursing practice, code of conducts and nursing ethics. Nursing student should be denied opportunity to cheat in an exam and made to understand the reasons to maintain honesty. Cheating corrupts morals, undermines professional code of conduct, and violates standards of practice in nursing. Nursing students should therefore be honest in exams and develop essential skills and behaviors need for delivering quality nursing care in their careers’.
References
Cluskey, G. R., Ehlen, C. R., & Raiborn, M. H. (2011). Thwarting online exam cheating without proctor supervision. Journal of Academic and Business Ethics, 4, 1–8. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/876280909/fulltextPDF?accountid=4840
Coren, A. (2011). Turning a Blind Eye: Faculty Who Ignore Student Cheating. Journal of Academic Ethics, 9(4), 291–305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-011-9147-y
Gough, I. R. (2014). The significance of good medical practice: A code of conduct for doctors in Australia. Medical Journal of Australia. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja13.11334
Kangasniemi, M., Pakkanen, P., & Korhonen, A. (2015). Professional ethics in nursing: An integrative review. Journal of Advanced Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12619
Keyko, K. (2014). Work engagement in nursing practice: A relational ethics perspective. Nursing Ethics, 21(8), 879–889. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733014523167
Kusnoor, A. V., & Falik, R. (2013). Cheating in medical school: The unacknowledged ailment. Southern Medical Journal. https://doi.org/10.1097/SMJ.0b013e3182a14388
Mariano, C. (2013). Holistic Nursing?: Scope and Standards of Practice. Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice, 59–84.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2014). Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia. Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 1, 1–9. Retrieved from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?record=WD10%2F1353&dbid=AP&chksum=Ac7KxRPDt289C5Bx%2Ff4q3Q%3D%3D
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA). (2017). Code of conduct for nurses. https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201190042
Park, E. J., Park, S., & Jang, I. S. (2013). Academic cheating among nursing students. Nurse Education Today, 33(4), 346–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2012.12.015
Raines, D. A., Ricci, P., Brown, S. L., Eggenberger, T., Hindle, T., & Schiff, M. (2011). Cheating In Online Courses: The Student Definition. The Journal of Effective Teaching, 11(1), 80–89.
Schmidt, B. J., MacWilliams, B. R., & Neal-Boylan, L. (2017). Becoming Inclusive: A Code of Conduct for Inclusion and Diversity. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(2), 102–107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.08.014
Stonecypher, K., & Willson, P. (2014). Academic Policies and Practices to Deter Cheating in Nursing Education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(3), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.5480/12-1028.1
Yachison, S., Okoshken, J., & Talwar, V. (2017). Students’ Reactions to a Peer’s Cheating Behavior. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000227
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