The Emotional Impact Nursing Faculty Experience in Relationship to Student Academic Dishonesty and the Social and Political Factors that Influence Their Decision to Report Dishonesty

The purpose of the study was to explore the emotional impact nursing faculty experience in relationship to nursing student academic dishonesty and the social and political factors that influence their decision to report suspected acts of academic dishonesty. The study was based on Fontana's 2009 study titled "Nursing Faculty Experiences of Students' Academic Dishonesty." Participants included full-time nursing faculty teaching at a Nebraska State Board of Nursing approved program and a Nebraska Assembly of Nursing Deans and Directors member institution. The results of the survey indicated that the relationship between the nursing faculty and nursing student did not have an impact on the overall positive or negative emotional responses to academic dishonest behaviors related to plagiarism, cheating, and fabrication nor the social and political factors influencing their decision to report suspected acts of academic dishonesty. Further analysis of the demographic data indicated differences between the nursing faculty responses based on their years of teaching experience in higher education, academic rank, the status of the nursing faculty's academic rank, the age of the nursing faculty, and the highest degree earned by the nursing faculty. The results of this study in addition to the recommendations made by Fontana in 2009 suggest that further research needs to be conducted in order understand the emotional, social, and political complexities of addressing academic dishonesty from a nursing faculty's point of view.