Ethical Issues for Students

ETHICAL ISSUES, SUCH AS DIS-honesty, plagiarism, andconfidentiality, are regularlyfaced by nutrition/dietetics students as well as by their professors and preceptors. The Code of Ethics for the Profession of Dietetics provides a roadmap to evaluate ethical situations that occur, and applies to studentmem- bers of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Academy) as well as to prac- titioners.1 In addition to the Code of Ethics, students must also be aware of the integrity policies at their schools as well as the privacy policies (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountabil- ity Act of 1996 [HIPAA]) of the organi- zations in which they are placed for practice. As social media proliferates, issues arise that provide students and practitioners additional opportunities to consider their professional code of ethics.

Dietetics students and dietetics in- terns are exposed to the Code of Ethics for the Profession of Dietetics as a re- quirement of all programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Educa- tion in Nutrition and Dietetics.2 It has been found that ethical behaviors dem- onstrated as a student correlate with later behaviors as a professional.3

Therefore, it is critical that dietetics stu- dents understand the Code of Ethics and its relevance to them.

Health professions students in other health disciplines learn about their codes of ethics and how to apply them to clinical practice. One study of 214 Finnish nursing students found that they learned about confidentiality, im- partiality, and developing professional competence, and that 56% felt that eth- ical concepts were covered extensively in their training.4 Yet students rated knowledge of their professional code of ethics and their skill in being able to ap- ply the code in practice as only “aver- age” on a Likert scale. Most students regularly participate

in some form of social media. Profes- sors must address dilemmas such as how to handle “friend” requests from their students.5 Even in training, stu- dents need to remember to portray a professional image on social media platforms. Also, students must realize that information shared on social me- dia about colleagues, preceptors, and patients might be considered confiden- tial in nature and subject to the profes- sional code of ethics, school integrity guidelines, and/or HIPAA rules. Four brief scenarios follow demon-

strating situations nutrition and dietet- ics studentsmay experience that can be evaluated using the Code of Ethics for the Profession of Dietetics.

SCENARIO 1—REQUESTING THE USE OF A CLASSMATE’S MEMBER NUMBER AND PASSWORD Susan is enrolled in a medical nutrition therapy course and has an assignment that would be easier to complete if she used the EvidenceAnalysis Library. Try- ing to save money, Susan did not be- come a student member of the Acad- emy. She asks her fellow students if they would share their member num- ber and log-in password to complete the class assignment.

Ethical Issue Because Susan is not a member of the Academy she is not bound by the Acad- emy/Commission on Dietetic Registra- tion Code of Ethics with regard to her

conduct. However, her classmates and professors, who are members, would need to consider Principle 1 of the Code: “The dietetics practitioner con- ducts himself/herself with honesty, in- tegrity, and fairness.”1 Giving a mem- ber number and password to a student who chose not to join the Academy would be considered a dishonest act.

SCENARIO 2—ACADEMIC INTEGRITY Paul is a student member of the Acad- emy. He attends a college that has an academic integrity policy. He needs to get a high grade on an examination to complete a required course for his in- ternship application. Paul was ob- served during this examination using a smart phone in his lap to access equa- tions and definitions that were to have been memorized.

Ethical Issue Similar to the first scenario, Principle 1 in the Code of Ethics has been breached.1 Because this college has an academic integrity policy, Paul and his professor will need to follow the proce- dures established in the course syllabus and by the school for handling this cheating incident. The outcomes could range from a discussion with the pro- fessor, failing an examination, attend- ing a cheating program, or even dis- missal from the major. It is important for students to be aware of their school’s academic integrity policies, procedures, and consequences. Some health care academic programs have stricter cheating policies than the school because the potential for harm to patients as a result of student cheat- ing could be a matter of life and death.

SCENARIO 3—PLAGIARISM Loren is preparing a case study for a pa- per and oral presentation that are due tomorrow. Feeling under time pres- sure, Loren copied some information from a few websites and journal arti- cles and included them in the paper and PowerPoint without attribution. Lo-

This article was written by Nadine Braunstein, PhD, RD, LD, assistant professor and the Allied Health Program Director at Towson University, Towson, MD.

doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2012.06.017

Meets Learning Need Codes 1000, 1050, 1090, and 1140. To take the Continuing Professional Education quiz for this article, log in to www. eatright.org, click the “MyProfile” link under your name at the top of the homepage, select “Journal Quiz” from the menu on your myAcademy page, click “Journal Article Quiz” on the next page, and then click the “Additional Journal CPE Articles” button to view a list of available quizzes, from which you may select the quiz for this article.

FROM THE ACADEMY Ethics in Action

© 2012 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS 1253

ren’s professor recognized these pas- sages as being plagiarized, and con- tacted the student about this serious infraction.

Ethical Issue Plagiarism is defined as “presenting work, products, ideas, words, or data of another as one’s own.”6 It is possible that Loren did not know that copying the information was plagiarism. How- ever, the guidelines will undoubtedly have been reviewed in several of Lo- ren’s classes. Loren’s professor will most likely review the consequences of plagiarism using the school’s academic integrity policy, taking action accord- ingly. In addition, examining Principle 1 of the Code of Ethics1 would indicate that Loren had not “conducted himself/ herself with honesty [or] integrity.”

SCENARIO 4—PROFESSIONALISM ON FACEBOOK Jerry is a dietetics intern doing a clinical rotation at a large metropolitan medi- cal center. Recently the parent of a ter- minally ill oncology patient sent Jerry a Facebook “friend” request that was ac- cepted. This parent was distraught when she found the intern had in- cluded private information about other patients, dietetics interns, and precep- tors on the Facebook page. The parent met with the internship director to dis- cuss her concerns.

Ethical Issues Social media provides new opportuni- ties for students and professionals to apply the Code of Ethics. There are sev- eral issues in this scenario. First, it would be important to determine whether “friending” the parent of a pa- tient on Facebook is considered profes- sionally appropriate by reviewing poli- cies of both the internship and the hospital. Second, the actual content of the in-

formation posted on Facebook would need to be evaluated to determine whether confidentiality had been com- promised. Principle 10 in the Code states, “The dietetics practitioner pro- tects confidential information and makes full disclosure about any limita- tion on his or her ability to guarantee full confidentiality.”1 If the intern had been an employee of the hospital, re-

vealing confidential patient informa- tion could be grounds for dismissal. Therefore, students and interns doing placements must also be knowledge- able about what information that is posted using social media is considered confidential as well as the confidential- ity policies at the organizations where training occurs.

CONCLUSION Studentmembers of the Academymust remember that they are held to the same Code of Ethics as all member cat- egories. In addition, students need to follow the integrity and confidentiality policies of their schools and their place- ment organizations. Because students are emerging professionals it is essen-…