Exploring perceptions and attitudes of senior medical students and interns to academic integrity

CONTEXT: Academic integrity is fundamental to the role of aspiring doctors. However, little is known about Middle Eastern students' perceptions and experiences of educational dishonesty. PURPOSE: To describe the self-reported attitudes and behaviours of senior medical students and interns regarding educational integrity and to determine whether there are any differences according to gender and year of study. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire to 88 participants. SETTING: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University, Al-Ain, UAE. RESULTS: A total of 82 (93.2%) respondents considered educational misconduct to be wrong. A total of 78 (88.6%) participants would not engage in such activities. Unethical educational practices such as plagiarism were viewed less seriously than other aspects of educational misconduct such as misuse of power. Female students were significantly less likely than males to report that they would engage in dishonest educational practices (P = 0.04). Interns were more stringent than medical students regarding penalties appropriate for academic misconduct (P = 0.002). Only 13 (15%) subjects stated that they would inform faculty of dishonest behaviour on the part of their peers. CONCLUSION: Most participants, particularly females and interns, consider educational misconduct to be wrong and would not engage in such activities.