\] Academic misconduct among Health Sciences students

Objectives. To determine the proportion of health sciences students who engage in academic misconduct and to identify their opinion of this behavior. Method. An anonymous, voluntary, self-administered questionnaire was given to all students in the Blanquerna School of Nursing, Physiotherapy and Nutrition, in February 2004. The questionnaire consisted of three sections: the first aimed to evaluate academic behavior during exams and practical sessions and when handing in coursework, the second was designed to determine students' opinion of copying, and the third aimed to determine their knowledge of academic misconduct among fellow students. Results. A total of 468 questionnaires were analyzed (participation rate 42.5%). Twenty-eight percent (120/468) (95% CI: 19.11-26.7) of the students reported they had copied during an exam. Twenty percent (95% CI: 16.6-23.9) admitted to copying entire texts from other authors without referencing the sources. Approximately 49.7% (95% CI: 45.1-54.2) gave their own work to other classmates to be used as a model. Sixty-eight percent (95% CI: 64.1-72.5) believed that all students cheated at some time during their university course. Students believed that the only punishment that should be applied was to invalidate the corresponding exam, exercise or test while about 20% considered no punishment was necessary. Discussion. Our students are similar those in other countries in terms of copying exams, plagiarizing texts or passing off material from the internet as their own. However, the students in this study tended to see academic misconduct as not especially serious.