Prevalence of lapses in academic integrity in two Pakistani medical colleges

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine prevalence of professionalism lapses related to academic integrity by students Pakistani medical colleges. SUBJECTS: 520 students. STUDY DESIGN: Cross sectional. DATA COLLECTION: A validated and customized version of Dundee Polyprofessional Inventory-1 for use in Pakistani medical schools was used. The students' perceptions on 47 behaviors were explored. RESULT: The response rate of students was 92%. Ninety percent or more than 90% of student agreed that 30 of the 47 listed behaviors were wrong. Different percentages of the students admitted doing 44 (94%), out of 47 behaviors. Students thought that fellow students were doing dishonest behaviors far more frequently than they themselves were. The commonest dishonest behaviors admitted were proxy attendance (308, 64%), receiving information about the paper from a student who has already sat in the exam, or themselves providing information about a paper who have yet to sit in it (297, 62%), completing work for another student 291 (61%). CONCLUSION: There are significant issues related to academic integrity in Pakistani medical schools that require remedy. The Dundee Polyprofessional Inventory-1 as customized for use in Pakistan is a useful tool to measure professionalism lapses related to academic integrity.