Academic Honesty, Professional Integrity, and Undergraduate Engineering Students: Exploring the Connections

One benefit of inculcating professionalism into engineering degree program curricula is a measure of the extent to which future practitioners adopt an engineering code of ethics (Abaté, 2011; Davis, 2006). Studies have indicated more dishonesty among engineering students than other groups of undergraduate learners, but the effects of technology on dishonesty in the classroom was not addressed (Bowers, 1964; McCabe et al., 2012). An explanatory, sequential mixed methods study was designed to explain to what degree course pedagogical practices and attitudes of civil, architectural and environmental engineering students of various academic levels (freshman/sophomore and senior) relate to academic dishonesty. The design allowed for the collection of quantitative survey data from engineering students and the instructors who teach those students through self-reports of attempted dishonest behavior, perceived descriptive norms and descriptions/definitions of the behaviors by both students and their instructors and reporting the consistencies and inconsistencies between the two groups. Additionally, instructors were surveyed for the courses in the program sequence of courses which connected the two courses under study to determine student attitudes, intentions and actions as well as instructor perceptions of the same behavioral characteristics based upon Ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behavior. Overall freshman/sophomore engineering students (n=31) described the 12 academically dishonest behaviors as less dishonest than graduating seniors (n=52). There were five statistically significant differences in attempted dishonest behaviors between the two student groups. Perceptions were also significantly different. Senior students perceived dishonest behaviors similarly to instructors (n=6), for 11 of 12 dishonest behaviors while freshman perceived higher rates of dishonesty than the actual self-reports

Potential role of a pharmacist to enhance medication-related aspects of clinical trials conducted in a dedicated clinical research unit

Purpose: Pharmacist involvement in medication reconciliation has been shown to have a positive impact on patient care in a number of settings [1−6], but there have been no evaluations of the effect of this pharmacist role on patient care during the conduct of clinical trials. Pharmacist involvement in the medication reconciliation process for clinical trials may provide improved protocol compliance. Methods: This was a retrospective pilot study conducted in a dedicated research unit that assessed completeness of the medication reconciliation process by clinical trial teams for patients participating in a clinical trial involving investigational medication(s). Patients' medication lists in the EHR were reviewed after their study visit. Pharmacy staff evaluated the medication list for accurate inclusion of IDs and any prohibited or restricted concomitant medication(s) per the study protocol. Results: Ninety-five patient visits over two months were evaluated and showed only 20.6% of IDs were listed in the EHR after study visits. Of those included, only 40% had the correct dose and 50% had the correct frequency listed. There were 20 potential protocol prohibited medications identified. There were four medications listed in a fashion that may have compromised maintenance of blinding status in the EHR. Conclusions: This pilot study showed potential roles for pharmacy personnel involvement in medication reconciliation in the clinical research setting. Pharmacists have the opportunity to ensure that IDs are accurately included in patient medication lists and to identify the use of potential protocol prohibited concomitant medications

Piloting Blended Strategies to Resolve Laboratory Capacity Issues in a First-Semester General Chemistry Course

Laboratory capacity is an issue that has plagued education for more than a century. New buildings, late night classes, and virtual laboratories have offered transitory relief at great expense. Missouri University of Science and Technology is employing blended strategies to increase capacity and student success. Blended strategies expand learning workspaces so that learners conduct traditional laboratory activities in both traditional and nontraditional laboratory environments. This article focuses on the proof of concept pilot results from blending the first-semester general chemistry laboratory course, which validate the adoption of this strategy for increasing student volume