Friday, October 6, 2017

Dishonesty Undermines Medicine

An element in the medical mess that is around us today is dishonesty — an embarrassment that pervades healthcare and undermines its core values of truth, integrity, philanthropy, and altruism.

Without question, dishonesty comes in all shades, and at times it can be a matter of interpretation. That said, dishonesty encompasses any form of professional or academic misconduct, including fraud, deceit, cheating, lying, shirking responsibility, abuse of authority, conflicts of interest, plagiarism, alteration of medical records, forgery, false representation, and knowingly assisting another person in dishonest acts. It's also a violation of every university, college and program "honor code".

Why then are students surprised when the are caught and confronted?
Stunning. Unfortunate.