Let's talk honestly about dishonesty: A qualitative study exploring the intersection of values and academic dishonesty in nursing students

Aim: This study aimed to examine nursing students' perceptions of real acts of academic dishonesty, in relation to their personal values and professional principles. Background: Despite awareness of the ethical and institutional consequences of academic dishonesty, its prevalence remains high among nursing students. This discrepancy between ethical awareness and actual behavior poses a significant concern in nursing education. Design: A qualitative design was employed to explore nursing students' (N = 11) experiences with academic dishonesty and the rationalization of the behaviors they employed. Methods: The study used self-reported data from nursing students, who reflected on their personal values, professional ethics and past encounters with academic dishonesty, exploring how these factors influenced their perceptions of the phenomenon. Results: The findings revealed that students perceive themselves as honest individuals who value integrity. While they uphold strong personal values and professional principles related to academic integrity, they often rationalize their behavior when confronted with past incidents of academic dishonesty. These rationalizations include minimizing the severity of unethical behavior through softer terminology, justifying dishonest actions under perceived mitigating circumstances, categorizing unethical acts by severity and attributing part of the responsibility to human nature or institutional factors that inadvertently enable such behavior. Conclusions: The study highlights the need for a comprehensive educational intervention to address academic dishonesty among nursing students. Such programs should focus on reinforcing the ethical implications of dishonest behavior, challenging students' rationalizations and promoting alignment between personal values and professional responsibilities to foster a culture of honesty and accountability in nursing practice.