Pharmacy student perceptions of academically dishonest behavior in skills activities

Introduction: Academic dishonesty is prevalent across pharmacy education. Understanding student perceptions and engagement in academically dishonest behaviors across skills activities is important, as skills curricula are essential components in assessing APPE readiness. The objectives of this study were to assess pharmacy student perceptions of academically dishonest behavior within a skills curriculum and to determine if correlations exist between students' perceived wrongness of a described behavior and their willingness to engage in the behavior or past engagement in that described behavior.

Methods: Students within a Doctor of Pharmacy program were asked to respond to an anonymous, electronic survey. The survey described 18 specific academically dishonest student behaviors across 12 skills scenarios. For each behavior, students were asked to indicate their perception of the wrongness of the behavior, their willingness to engage in the behavior, and if they had engaged in the behavior in the past. Descriptive statistics were completed to assess responses. Fisher analysis was used to compare “yes” responses to “no/not sure” responses for each question.

Results: Students indicated general agreement that most described behaviors were wrong. There was <50% agreement in the wrongness of behaviors that described failing to report another student's academically dishonest behavior. Generally, students who agreed that a particular behavior was wrong were less likely to report willingness to engage in the behavior or past engagement in the behavior.

Discussion: Generally, students in our cohort agreed that the presented actions across multiple skills activities were wrong, with less agreement regarding turning classmates in for academic dishonesty. Relatively small percentages of students responded that they had engaged in these activities in the past.

Conclusions: Understanding these perceptions, as well as students' willingness to engage in academic dishonesty, can guide instructors in communicating expectations regarding academic integrity within the skills curriculum.