Reasons for academic dishonesty during examinations among nursing students: Cross-sectional survey

Background: Understanding why nursing students engage in academic dishonesty is crucial, since cheating is becoming more common and can be followed by unethical professional practice. Objectives: To develop and validate a questionnaire for investigating nursing students' perceptions about the reasons for academic dishonesty during examinations, along with identifying the most important of these reasons. Design: Cross-sectional survey with the use of a convenience sample. Participants and setting. 660 undergraduate students of a nursing department in Greece. Methods: Questionnaire items were developed based on literature review and student interviews, evaluation of their content validity and intra-rater reliability. The participants completed the questionnaire electronically, which included items referring to behaviors of and reasons for academic dishonesty during examinations. Based on their responses, factor analysis was used to determine structural validity of the items that referred to the reasons for academic dishonesty. Results: High prevalence of academic dishonesty behaviors during examinations was confirmed. Reasons for academic dishonesty were grouped into three factors, which included 17 items in total. Highly-rated items mainly referred to non-realistic demands of and unfair student treatment by academic personnel, absence of severe consequences for cheating, the way examinations are performed, and the importance of achieving high grades. Female, junior and high degree grade students had significantly higher percentages of highly-rated responses in some items. Conclusions: These findings offered knowledge about the reasons that students perceive to mostly favor cheating, whose identification can guide preventive strategies.