Essay Example on Zero Tolerance for Plagiarism: Safeguarding Academic Integrity

Introduction

Plagiarism is a phenomenon that is vastly experienced in academic works. "plagiarism includes the procurement of others' work, perhaps from a student colleague, past or present, or from a website offering completed essays, and representing this as one's own work" (Price, 2014 p.46). Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional, but in both cases, it often attracts academic penalties. It is caused by the confusion of how to acknowledge certain information due to the availability of diverse sources of academic information. It also occurs when a student copies word for word of a source without quoting the work to show that it is not their own (Price, 2014). Plagiarism is rampant in higher education, but avoidable. It is vital to avoid plagiarism to be immune from academic penalties as well as to uphold one's reputation as a student. Plagiarism impacts negatively on one's academic progress, and therefore, by avoiding it, they are guaranteed to excel. Plagiarism free work is high-quality work, and it hence points at the expertise and academic prowess of a student. Among ways to avoid plagiarism includes preparing well for an assignment, searching for the sources, taking notes and documenting the resources adequately to enable revisiting them later. Paraphrasing and quoting are similarly helpful techniques in avoiding plagiarism. Paraphrasing involves absorbing information from a source and presenting them in one's own words different from that of the author while quoting involves inserting inverted commas to words borrowed from an author, to show that they are not a student's (Price, 2014). Citing this information is also vital even after quoting or paraphrasing as it acknowledges that they belong to an author(s) and hence eliminates plagiarism.

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Rights to Information

Information forms a critical part of nursing practice, and this requires that the information caters for the different rights within the healthcare setting. These rights include the right information, accessible by the right people, in the right settings, applied the right way at the right time. Given a chance to fulfill four of the five rights, the right setting will have to be foregone for the other four to be availed. This is because clinical services and wisdom can be acquired in different contexts and similarly be required in various scenarios therefore once all the other four are catered for, the setting will not be as vital in putting them to practice.

Right Information

The field of nursing is one that requires the cyclic acquisition, sharing and dissemination of information across all levels. The availability of the right information is hence paramount in maximizing the outcomes form the different practices under this field. Evidence-based information has been advocated for in nursing due to geographical variations and the trend that a lot of care is harmful or ineffective (Vincent, Hastings-Tolsma, Gephart & Alfonzo, 2015). The availability of the right information has been barely achieved, as many practitioners rely on their judgment or the traditional methods of care. "It has been estimated that patients receive evidence-based care only 55% of the time" (Vincent, Hastings-Tolsma, Gephart & Alfonzo, 2015 p.48). Therefore, to subject patients to the right information, nurses should conduct research and gather evidence in support for or against certain practices and interventions.

Accessible to the Right People

With the nurses being the target population, and the centers for the dissemination of the information, they are the right people to acquire this information. Therefore, targeting them for the different evidence-based facts, training, and advancement in education is critical. Nurses require a "questioning/inquiring attitude toward their practice and the care environment" (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011 p.15). Therefore, by acquiring a master's education, they are in a position to translate the evidence at hand, identify gaps, apply the research in their practice and disseminate this information within their settings and in more comprehensive settings and venues with the aim of advancing nursing practice (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). Masters-prepared nurses, alongside other nurses, are hence the tools through which information advances care.

Applied the Right Way at the Right Time

Once the information is on the hands of the right people, it should be utilized in the right way, at the right time. The evidence-based practice synthesized and equipped to nurses should be used alongside "the expertise of the clinician as well as patient/family preferences and values to make the best decisions about patient care" (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018 p.9). For these interventions to succeed, there must be adherence to different aspects of time. A quality improvement strategy, for instance, can be put in place once a problem has been established while other interventions might require adequate planning, research, and study before they can be implemented (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2018). The time for putting these interventions into practice within the healthcare setting is also crucial.

Conclusion

In conclusion, plagiarism is the failure of acknowledging another person's work and presenting it as one's own. It can be prevented by adequately preparing for a paper, quoting and paraphrasing other people's works as well as referencing them to give credit to the owner. In the nursing practice, five rights exist concerning the flow, sharing, and acquisition of information. While the setting where this information is acquired or disseminated might be flexible, the quality, target, utility, and timing of this information is crucial in determining the outcome of an intervention and care.

References

American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2011). The Essentials of Master's Education in Nursing. Pp. 15-17. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/Publications/MastersEssentials11.pdf

Melnyk B. A. & Fineout-Overholt E. (2018). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: Making the Case for Evidence-Based Practice and Cultivating a Spirit of Inquiry. Chapter 1. Fourth edition. P.9. ISBN 9781496384539

Price B (2014) Avoiding plagiarism: guidance for nursing students. Nursing Standard. 28 (26). Pp. 45-51. Doi: 10.7748/ns2014.02.28.26.45.e8514.

Vincent D., Hastings-Tolsma M., Gephart S. & Alfonzo P. M. (2015). Nurse practitioner clinical decision-making and evidence-based practice. The Nurse Practitioner. 40 (5). Pp.47-54. DOI-10.1097/01.NPR.0000463783.42721.ef