The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity
Academic integrity is one of the most critical educational and ethical virtues that any student should possess. This principle is a manifestation of professionalism, self-control, and demonstrates the ethical behavior of a person (Devine & Chin, 2018). Academic integrity in the framework of writing is, first of all, a manifestation of honesty, responsibility, and respect for the work of others. One of the most common expressions of insufficient integrity is plagiarism (Glasper, 2016). Students in search of easy ways to submit works often copy them from their friends or order them on third-party sites.
Ultimately, this all affects the quality of their writing skills, because sooner or later they may find themselves in a situation where there will be no opportunity to cheat. Although the process of teaching quality scholarly writing can be complicated, there are several tools designed to facilitate academic work. The primary purpose of Grammarly is to correct the grammar since the academic text cannot be written with errors. SafeAssign, in turn, helps the writer avoid plagiarism, even if it is unintentional. As mentioned above, academic work should be free from it, and the use of paraphrasing plays a significant role in this.
It is paraphrasing that helps the writer combine the knowledge gained from various sources and retell it in his or her own words. However, it is not often an easy task, and thus, SafeAssign helps to find indirect plagiarism. There are many different tools to help writers maintain academic integrity, which is extremely important not only in educational but also in professional activities.
There is a direct link between vocational and academic integrity and ethical standards. High medical values, honesty, and ethical standards are expected from physician assistants, i.e., nurses (Devine & Chin, 2018). The same values are called upon to observe the concept of academic integrity. Consequently, the presence of academic ethical standards is a necessary basis for building professional relations.
Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work
It is necessary to follow specific policies that are designed to comply with ethical standards and maintain the integrity of the work. An MSN student must be sure that all of his work meets academic requirements. First of all, such conditions are the absence of plagiarism, the originality of thought, and the scholarly level of quality of work. To achieve them, a student must use all the available tools, such as SafeAssist and Grammarly.
The first tool allows you to verify the absence of plagiarism; after that, it is up to the writer, who must rephrase his thought or put the appropriate quote. Grammarly will help a student to meet the required academic level of work by checking the text and suggesting word replacements. As for honesty, in this case, not a single tool can help, and everything depends only on the student himself. The best strategy can only be the training of endurance, responsibility, and self-control.
Maintaining professional integrity is a bit more complicated task, as the seriousness of the work increases. However, all the primary goals remain the same, since the very concept of a nurse’s work is built on honesty and trust (Coverdale et al., 2016). Thus, to observe professional integrity, it is necessary to have a concept of academic integrity built. Secondly, it is essential to adhere to honesty throughout nursing professional activities, in communicating with patients. Also, a specialist should use all resources, including academic ones, to maintain and improve his competence and education.
A nurse must maintain high intellectual standards at all times to effectively advocate for the interests of the patients (Coverdale et al., 2016). Resources for this can be a variety of continuing education courses, as well as a self-study of materials related to her profession.
Thus, it can be concluded that academic and professional integrity are inextricably linked. It is necessary to complete the education to build a successful career and effectively fulfill nursing duties, and this is impossible without observing academic principles. However, both types of integrity are united by the presence of standard foundations and goals, which are honesty, trust, self-control, and responsibility.
References
Coverdale, J.H., Roberts, L.W., Balon, R., Beresin, E.V., Louie, A.K., Guerrero, A., Brenner, A.M., & McCullough, L.B. (2016). Professional integrity and the role of medical students in professional self-regulation. Acad Psychiatry, 40, 525–529. Web.
Devine, C. A., & Chin, E. D. (2018). Integrity in nursing students: A concept analysis. Nurse education today, 60, 133-138. Web.
Glasper, A. (2016). Does cheating by students undermine the integrity of the nursing profession? British Journal of Nursing, 25(16), 932-933. Web.