Examining Students’ Attitudes toward Academic Dishonesty in California Pharmacy Schools

Objective To explore California student-pharmacists’ opinions of academic dishonesty. Methods An electronic survey was distributed to all currently enrolled students at each of the 13 California pharmacy schools. The survey evaluated students’ definition of cheating, their motives, views, and perceived long-term consequences of academic dishonesty. Demographic data (e.g., age, gender) were also collected. Results A total of 251 usable responses were collected from 13 California pharmacy schools. Most student-respondents did not have an accurate understanding of what constitutes cheating. Most student-respondents believed that copying a homework assignment from a friend (61.2%) and allowing a friend to copy their homework assignment (61.8%) did not constitute academic dishonesty. Many student-respondents indicated that they had heard of or witnessed cheating in pharmacy school (66.1%); studentrespondents also admitted to being tempted to cheat in certain classes (45.4%) and indicated that they would cheat if it meant passing a class (78.3%). Only 18.8% of studentrespondents agreed that cheating in pharmacy school would negatively affect their judgment as pharmacists in the future. There were no significant differences in attitudes of student respondents about academic dishonesty by gender on 28 of the 30 items investigated. Moreover, there were no significant gender-based differences in the student-respondents who reported academically dishonesty behaviors. Conclusions Academic dishonesty is prevalent in the California pharmacy academic setting. Most student-respondents had heard about or witnessed their classmates cheating. This is highly concerning, as dishonest behavior may translate into the workplace once students graduate. Students, pharmacy school administrators and faculty should work together to discourage and prevent cheating.