Unethical implementation of Plagiarism
Bria Winston
Chamberlain College of Nursing
Fall ‘16
Unethical Implementation of Plagiarism
The Code of Conduct states, “Act of dishonesty are Forgery, alteration or misuse of any college document, record or instrument of identification” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2016). Plagiarism is the alteration or misuse of college documents. Plagiarism is defined as the act of stealing someone else’s work and passing it on as your own. It is a dishonest act. Many things fall under plagiarism. Turning in things and claiming it to be your own along with failing to put quotations marks, not giving credit, giving incorrect citations, and changing words but copying sentence structure are all examples. I’ve been found guilty of plagiarism, copying and “other”. I turned in a ROK that was plagiarized.
Copying
“The act of copying is not limited by the method of conveyance…printed matter (including notes) or electronic means all constitute methods by which copying can occur. Examples of copying include: Any act of representing another’s work… Another’s work includes, but is not limited to, homework, written papers… published work…” (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2016). Anytime you copy someone else’s work it must be referenced, if it is not referenced it is plagiarism (Roberts, D.J. 2011). I did this when I didn’t review over my ROK in the correct way. This is very unethical. In nursing I am trusted with confidential important documents. I need to be trusted. Certainly I would not copy recent labs or VS without doing the work for myself. Ways to avoid copying and plagiarism are making sure your references are accurate, always paraphrase and rewrite, there should be no more than 30 % regularity between documents, and always use quotation marks. Our school requires that some of our papers be turn in to a site called Turnitin and it has to be under 27%. The ROK I turned in wasn’t required to be turn in to turn it in. It might have helped me if that was a requirement.
Plagiarism
Per the student handbook, “plagiarism is a serious offense. Students acknowledge that by taking a course, all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin®, for the detection of plagiarism.” My ROK contains word-for-word passages without proper acknowledgement and it contained a blunt resemblance. (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2016). Self-plagiarism is classified as an unacceptable misconduct. Even though something is yours it can be considered plagiarism. Many people do not know this. Certainly when I am working, I will not repeat any work to shortcut time. My personal life should never interfere with business life. Nurses are held to a very high standard, because people trust us with their life. Plagiarism is often done by mistake. There is a moto “when in doubt- cite” (Smith, L.S. 2016). If you know the source always cite, if you are not sure. It will save you from a lot. Paraphrasing means you are adding your own ideas, and conclusions. It will not appear as though you are stealing from anyone else. Plagiarism can be due to knowledge deficit, and leads to unprofessional conduct. It violates all ethical standards. That reflects badly on the facility you work at and/or the school you attend. As a nurse you always want to have a sense of honesty, and dignity when handling records. Unfortunately, in nursing schools 72% of the nursing students said they wouldn’t report peers for plagiarism (Smith, J.S. 2016). With technology being such an easy access to countless resources, assignment plagiarism is easy to do. Checking for plagiarism using like turn it in is available to faculty and students. Not telling on as student or co-worker puts you in the same position as the person actually plagiarizing. Both parties are not being honest and they are not upholding nursing standards. Good writing will not happen without careful consideration that includes the analysis of all information by others. It takes time and dedication, but it is the best and most responsible thing to do.
“Using the material of others, however obtained, for purposes of gaining advantage or credit.” (Chamberlain College of Nursing. 2016) This is also an act of dishonesty because I didn’t do the assignment by myself. This doesn’t fall under plagiarism, but as far as completing assignments this can be dishonest as well. As nurses we use sources to help us better take care of our patients, but in the case of an assignment it is easy to fall into copying and plagiarism. A study found 50% of the students practiced cheating in one way or another during their undergraduate classes. They also admit that they are well aware of what plagiarism is (Smedley, A., Crawford, T., & Cloete, L. 2015)
Many do not see the link plagiarism or copying to academic integrity and honesty relative to their academic success. Sometimes the fear of being caught is not enough to stop some students, because you just want to get it done. A little over a quarter of nursing students did not believe that copying results for a laboratory is a lack of academic integrity, and a little over half of the nursing students disagreed that handing down coursework from upper classmen to lower classmen was considered cheating. (Arhin and Jones, 2009)
I would have to say that I had the same mentality as these students. I wanted to hurry and get my work complete and I didn’t think that it would matter, because the answers are the answers right? I had most of the professor’s sentence structures and punctuation in the same place. It was very obvious, but this mentality is immature and irresponsible. I don’t think the emphasis is so much on plagiarism as it is integrity. I have emphasized this a lot in this paper, but it very important and needs to be stressed. Integrity is a huge part of nursing. Dean Little said it best it isn’t about the assignments or the exams it is about doing the right thing. Nurses pride themselves in doing all that they can for their patients and patient family members, being honest and transparent is the number one way we do this. Plagiarism is a very high offense and we need to think of it on the same level as someone stealing money from patients or even medication from patients. I absolutely wouldn’t want to be put into the same category as someone who is stealing money or medications from a patient, but the fact of the matter is that the offense is just as bad.
Conclusion
As a result of my actions I have received a college suspension after the November’16 session, and I can return the March session. I had to write this five-page paper addressing the unethical implications of plagiarism in nursing education, and probation for 6 semesters. I had a lot going on in my personal life, like my mom being in the ICU after having a stroke. My mom was priority that week plus I had to test coming up to study for. By no means is this excusing my actions, because plagiarism is a very serious matter, and know I realize the degree of seriousness. There is no room for plagiarism in my nursing career. It is something I could possibly be put in jail for. Nurses are expected to maintain integrity, and I would not have appreciated if a nurse would have done something offensive as plagiarism while taking care of my mother. I would not want a nurse’s personal life to conflict with business life. It is unprofessional and unjust and a person like that wouldn’t be trusted. That is why it is so important that I learn about this now while I am in school. The code of conduct plainly stated what the consequences were if found guilty of any accounts of plagiarism. I received the appropriate discipline even though I do not like it. I have never failed a class and I would be starting my senior year of nursing school in January, but now I have to sit out for two months because of my actions. That probably is the biggest disappointment out of this whole situation. I apologize to professor Rhinehart for even making her have to do this, because as the caring teacher that she is I can only imagine how hard it was for her to turn this in and watch some of her students receive discipline. Everyone at Chamberlain wants us to succeed, so it is upsetting when students like myself make carless decisions such as these. I am sorry and it will not happen again.
References
Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2016). Chamberlain College of Nursing Student Handnook.
Illinois, US: Chamberlain College of Nursing LLC.
Roberts, D. J. (2011). An epidemic of plagiarism: original text is best but when is copying copying?. Transfusion Medicine (Oxford, England), 21(5), 286-288. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3148.2011.01107.x
Smedley, A., Crawford, T., & Cloete, L. (2015). An intervention aimed at reducing plagiarism in undergraduate nursing students. Nurse Education In Practice, 15(3), 168. doi:10.1016/j.nepr.2014.12.003
Smith, L. S. (2016). Conquering plagiarism in nursing education. Nursing, 46(7), 17. doi:10.1097/01.NURSE.0000484035.47822.3a
Wiwanitkit, V. (2015). Self-plagiarism: guilty or not?. European Journal Of Clinical Investigation, 45(11), 1220. doi:10.1111/eci.12536