Abstract
Concern is growing as research continues to find evidence of academic misconduct among medical students. There is, however, paucity of information on this issue among medical students and medical graduates in Africa. We determined the perceptions and attitude of house officers on academic misconduct within Nigerian medical schools. We conducted 7 focus group discussions (FGDs) among pre-registration house-officers (PRHOs) working in a Nigerian Teaching hospital between October and November 2013. A FGD guide containing 7 broad questions related to their perception and attitude on academic misconduct was employed. Ethnographic content analysis and manual coding were adopted in identifying themes, issues and representative quotations. A total of 58 participants out of an eligible pool of 76 PRHOs were recruited. All the groups associated academic misconduct chiefly with cheating in examinations, and perceived it as a commonplace problem. “It is a part of school life”, admitted one PRHO. Copying during exam appeared to be the commonest form of cheating. Another respondent opined that “The lecturers should be more concerned with helping students understand better. They should not make passing an exam a do-or-die affair.” The perception and attitudes towards academic misconduct may be a reflection of the prevailing moral decline in the contemporary Nigerian society. Underlying the reasons adduced by the participants for getting involved in academic misconduct is the fear of failure in examinations. Apart from consolidating formal and informal medical ethics education, the medical schools should ensure that the opportunities and pressures to indulge in academic misconduct are minimized.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baldwin Jr., D. C., Daugherty, S. R., Rowley, B. D., & Schwarz, M. D. (1996). Cheating in medical school: A survey of second year students at 31 schools. Academic Medicine, 71(3), 267–273.
Danielsen, R. D., Simon, A. F., & Pavlick, R. (2006). The culture of cheating: From the classroom to the exam room. The Journal of Physician Assistant Education, 17(1), 23–29. https://doi.org/10.1097/01367895-200617010-00004.
Division of Student Affairs. (2012). The Center for Student Conduct. Berkeley: University of California http://sa.berkeley.edu/conduct/integrity.definition. Accessed 16 Jan 2017.
Dogas, V., Jeroncic, A., Marusic, M., & Marusic, A. (2014). Who would students ask for help in academic cheating? Cross-sectional study of medical students in Croatia. BMC Medical Education, 14, 1048. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-014-0277-y.
Engler, J. N., Landau, J. D., & Epstein, M. (2008). Keeping up with the joneses: Students’ perceptions of academically dishonest behavior. Teaching of Psychology, 35(2), 99–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/00986280801978418.
Ghias, K., Lakho, G. H., Asim, H., Azam, I. S., & Saeed, S. A. (2014). Self –reported attitudes and behaviours of medical students in Pakistan regarding academic misconduct: A cross-sectional study. BMC Medical Ethics, 15, 43. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6939-15-43.
Glick, S. M. (2001). Cheating at medical school. British Medical Journal, 322, 250–251.
Hafeez, K., Khan, M.L.Z., Jawaid, M., Haroon, S. (2013) Academic misconduct among students in medical colleges of Karachi, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences, 29(3), 699–702.
Hrabak, M., Vujaklija, A., Vodopiec, I., Hren, D., Marusic, M., & Marusic, A. (2004). Academic misconduct among medical students in a post-communist country. Medical Education, 38(3), 276–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2004.01766.x.
Montuno, E., Davidson, A., Iwasaki, K., Jones, S., Martin, J., Brooks, D., Gibson, B. E., & Mori, B. (2012). Academic dishonesty among physical therapy students: A descriptive study. Physiotherapy Canada, 64(3), 245–254. https://doi.org/10.3138/ptc.2011-13.
Ogundiran, T. O., & Adebamowo, C. A. (2010). Medical ethics education: A survey of opinion of medical students in a Nigeria university. J Acad Ethics, 8(2), 85–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10805-010-9110-3.
Okoroafor, A. U., Henning, M. A., Chibuike, M. O., & Rajput, V. (2016). Disclosing academic dishonesty: Perspectives from Nigerian and New Zealand health professional students. Ethics and Behaviour, 26(5), 431–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508422.2015.1055494.
Petersdorf, R. G. (1989). A matter of integrity. Academic Medicine, 64, 119–123.
Rennie, S. C., & Crosby, J. R. (2001). Are “tomorrow’s doctors” honest? Questionnaire study exploring medical students’ attitudes and reported behavior on academic misconduct. British Medical Journal, 322, 274–275. https://doi.org/10.1136/jme.29.2.97.
Rennie, S. C., & Rudland, J. R. (2003). Differences in medical students’ attitudes to academic misconduct and reported behavior across the years –a questionnaire study. Journal of Medical Ethics, 29, 97–102.
Saana, S. B. B. M., Ablordeppey, E., Mensah, N. J., & Karikari, T. K. (2016). Academic dishonesty in higher education: Students’ perceptions and involvement in an African institution. BMC Research Notes, 9, 234. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-016-2044-0.
Taradi, S.K., Taradi, M., Dogas, Z. (2012) Croatian medical students see academic dishonesty as an acceptable behavior: A cross-sectional multi-campus study. Journal of Medical Ethics, 38, 376–379.
Teferra, D. (2001). Academic dishonesty in African universities-trends, challenges and repercussions. An Ethiopian case study. International Journal of Educational Development, 21, 163–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0738-0593(00)00037-7.
Vengoechea, J., Moreno, S., & Ruiz, A. (2007). Misconduct in medical students. Developing World Bioethics. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8847.2007.00194.x.
Walker, J. (1998). Students’ plagiarism in universities: What are we doing about it? Higher Education Research and Development, 17, 89–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0729436980170105.
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the support of the 2013 House-officers set of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. We also acknowledge the support of Miss NN Uzokwe who acted as the research assistant on the field.
Funding
The work was entirely self-funded.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All the authors made substantial intellectual contributions to the article by being involved with the conception, design, analysis/interpretation of the data, drafting/revising and approving the manuscript. Only one author (RCM) and the research assistant were involved in the data collection; being the only ones who were not medical doctors and also un-affiliated to the Teaching Hospital. This was to promote candor on the part of the respondents.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Sources of Support
None.
Conflict of Interest
None.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Okoye, O.I., Maduka-Okafor, F., Matthias, R.C. et al. Academic Misconduct in Nigerian Medical Schools-A Report from Focus Group Discussions among House Officers. J Acad Ethics 16, 275–285 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-017-9294-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-017-9294-x