The Connection Between Academic and Professional Integrity
Academic integrity sets out the standards and norms of behavior for anyone who is engaged in educational activities. The relationship between academic integrity and writing is essential since writing allows students to show their academic progress. Scholars publish the results of their studies and reflections for a review of collegues. With academic integrity, the community can be assured that these writings are fair and belong to the individuals who present them. For example, essays are written by students, and articles were prepared by academics and not copied from others’ texts.
Professional practices and scholarly ethics are linked, especially in medicine, where dishonesty and lack of morals can cause harm to patients. According to Alba (2016), “reliance on moral principles and professional codes has given nurses direction for ethical decision-making” (p. 855). In Alba’s (2016) study, the researcher found that nurses rely on intuition when making decisions and evaluate the ethics of their work based on their work experience. This shows that teaching ethics at Universities is essential because although intuition is a good marker for ethical decision making, in medicine, some cases may be complex and require a thorough understanding of the professional conduct codes. For example, respect for patient’s autonomy or controversial topics such as abortions and euthanasia require approaches beyond intuition.
Grammarly contributes to academic integrity by allowing one to proofread the work before submitting it for publication. An essential part of academic integrity is being able to write correctly and cohesively to ensure that readers can easily understand what the main idea of the text is. By using Grammarly, a writer ensures that readers are not used by typos or grammar mistakes and instead can entirely focus on the text. SafeAssign’s goal is to prevent plagiarism, especially unintentional ones. For example, when students are preparing an assignment, they read a lot of material from their textbooks, assigned readings, and the internet to learn about a subject and form an opinion about an issue (Calonia, 2020). However, when writing, it is essential to cite any ideas that belong to others and are not common knowledge. By using paraphrasing and citations, a student can maintain their academic integrity because they can integrate the work of others into their writing correctly and give credit to the authors. Hence, one can give proper credit to the original author and ensure no dishonesty in their work.
Strategies for Maintaining Integrity of Work
The first step to maintaining academic integrity as an MSN program is to get familiar with the standards of integrity and the program’s policies. Hence, I plan on reading through the professional code of conduct for nurses to remind myself of the standards that I have to adhere to as a nurse. Next, I will reread the University’s academic integrity policy and review my notes on the subject to ensure that I remember the details correctly.
Next, using tools that can help prevent unintentional breaches of academic integrity, such as SafeAssign and Grammarly, is essential. But checking each text, I will be able to identify grammatical errors and ensure that all information I discuss is cited and attributed to its source. Thus, the resources I choose to maintain academic integrity as a student include the University’s websites, SafeAssign, and Grammarly. SafeAssign is especially important to ensure that all work I incorporate into my essays and assignments is appropriately credited. SafeAssign helps the students identify the information that belongs to a specific source, which one might have forgotten to cite. Hence, with this tool, a student or a professional can maintain their academic integrity. When checking their text, they may find that the ideas they have discussed were previously voiced by someone else.
Next, as a professional nurse, I also have to maintain academic and professional integrity. ANA’s code of ethics is the standard for the profession that each nurse has to adhere to, which is why I plan on reviewing it consistently over the course of my career. Also, I plan on discussing some of the principles with my coworkers, especially those who have more experience and ask them about real-life situations where they had to apply these standards. This will help me understand the applicability of ANA’s standards and think over challenging work scenarios that other nurses faced, to ensure that I am prepared for these situations as well.
Resources that will help me support my academic integrity as a nurse are professional nursing journals that focus on ethics, ANA’s website, and other resources I get assigned over the course of my studies that focus on ethics. Moreover, during my professional work, feedback will be the best tool to review the ethics of my work, which is why I plan on reaching out to my subordinates to ensure that I work ethically. Once I receive this feedback, I will be able to adjust my work and review my approaches to nursing in a real-life setting.
References
Alba, B. (2018). Factors that impact on emergency nurses’ ethical decision-making ability. Nursing Ethics, 25(7), 855–866. Web.
Calonia, (2019). How to avoid plagiarism in your work: 5 effective methods. Grammarly Blog. Web.