Factors Contributing To Academic Dishonesty Among Nursing Students In Kenya Medical Training College Western Kenya

Introduction: Academic integrity is important in training of nurses since on completion of their studies the nurses will be involved in taking care of lives. Academic dishonesty among nursing students leads to putting the lives of patients at risk. The Purpose of this study was toassess factors contributing to academic dishonesty among Nursing Students in Kenya Medical Training Colleges in Western Kenya. Methodology: A cross-sectional analytical design was employed in this study. Qualitative data was collected from lecturers, administrators, examination coordinators, disciplinary committee chair persons using Key informant interviews. Structured questionnaires for students and available records were used to collect quantitative data. Three colleges were randomly sampled to include Webuye and Bungoma in Bungoma County, kakamega in Kakamega County. Systematic sampling was used to select222 students who participated in the study while purposive sampling was used in selecting 12 key informants. Qualitative data collected addressed factors contributing to academic dishonest. Data entered in SPSS version 25 software and analysis done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Odds ratio and p value were used to determine the strength of association. A p-value of less than or equal to 0.05 was considered significant. Findings: The results revealed that of the 202 students, about 47 % got involved in the academic malpractices of which most respondents were females. However, the study results did not reveal any relationship between respondents’ socio-demographic characteristics (age, gender) and the acts of academic dishonesty although a higher proportion of females (48.6%) and those aged 20 years and above (49.5%) were involved. The study indicated that students were sensitized on academic dishonesty at the beginning of their program through various ways with students’ handbook being used the commonest (40.1%). Most common form of academic dishonesty students engaged in was cheating (71.6%);most students gave fear of consequences as the most important reason that deterred them from engaging in academic malpractices at 20%.Mainfactor contributing to academic dishonesty was the lack of lecturers to adhere to policies during administration of examinations (OR: 2.3; 95% CI: 1.2-4.5; 0.01). Other factors include students not aware of college rules (OR:0.6;95%CI:0.3-1.0;0.07), overcrowding (47.8%), accessibility to examination material (48.5%) and peer pressure (50.4%). Conclusion: The study concludes that academic dishonesty is prevalent in the three colleges with cheating as the commonest form with various contributing factors namely: overcrowding and lack of lecturers adhering to policies in administration of examinations, followed by family pressure to perform well. Recommendation: This study therefore recommends that lectures should adhere to college policies particularly during invigilation of examinations and the administration should ensure provision of enough spacing during examination. This will contribute immensely towards enhancing academic integrity among nursing students.