The nursing profession, including the study process, often concerns the questions or morality and implies approaching at times complex moral dilemmas. For this reason, it is imperative for a nurse to nurture personal integrity and accountability that can take the form of academic integrity or professional ethics. This essay discusses the subject matter by explaining the relationship between academic integrity and writing and the relationship between professional practices and scholarly ethics.
The first step to entering the nursing field is education, which requires anyone who decides to pursue this path needs to uphold academic integrity. Academic integrity is defined as the commitment to honest and moral behavior in academic settings. Academic integrity is closely connected with academic writing as producing scholarly write-ups requires carefulness and responsibility. Probably, the greatest violation of academic integrity in writing is plagiarism, which is copying other people’s ideas without acknowledging the author (Devine & Chin, 2018). When it happens, a nurse demonstrates no regard for other people’s work and allows dishonesty into academia. Another important aspect of the nursing profession is scholarly ethics in professional practices. Nursing ethics matter because they improve the quality of care, set a precedent for patients’ dignity, and increase the chances of positive health outcomes. In modern healthcare, scholarly ethics are not completely detached from professional practices: nurses are expected to uphold the four ethical principles of patient autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-malevolence (Butts & Rich, 2019).
In summation, at present, nurses are expected to hold themselves to the highest standards of personal integrity and accountability, be it in academia or at the workplace. Writing is an integral part of nursing education and should comply with academic integrity guidelines such as the prohibition of any type of plagiarism. Workplace ethics largely stem from scholarly ethics that should guide professional practices and revolve around patient autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-malevolence.
References
Butts, J. B., & Rich, K. L. (2019). Nursing ethics. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Devine, C. A., & Chin, E. D. (2018). Integrity in nursing students: A concept analysis. Nurse education today, 60, 133-138.