Religious affiliation, quality of life and academic performance: New Zealand medical students.

The present study investigated the connections between religious affiliation, quality of life (QOL) and measures of academic performance. Participants (n = 275) were recruited from the School of Medicine within a New Zealand university. Religious affiliation was classified according to three subcategories: Christian (n = 104), Eastern religion (n = 34) and non-religious (n = 117). The participants completed the World Health Organisation quality of life questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF) and the World Health Organisation Spiritual, Religiousness, and Personal Beliefs questionnaire immediately before their lecture time. The main findings of the study indicated that participants from different religious affiliations expressed different spiritual QOL perceptions. However, these different expressions did not translate into their perceptions related to hours of study and academic achievement. In addition, the QOL measures did not relate to academic achievement estimation but did predict hours of study. Greater hours of study were related to greater physical health but lower psychological health and poorer engagement in developing social relationships. Data from a small focus group (n = 4) revealed that these students believed that having a belief system assisted them when coping with the academic learning environment, although little difference could be found between external religious orientations and internal belief systems.

Reasons for academic honesty and dishonesty with solutions: a study of pharmacy and medical students in New Zealand.

This paper presents students' views about honest and dishonest actions within the pharmacy and medical learning environments. Students also offered their views on solutions to ameliorating dishonest action. Three research questions were posed in this paper: (1) what reasons would students articulate in reference to engaging in dishonest behaviours? (2) What reasons would students articulate in reference to maintaining high levels of integrity? (3) What strategies would students suggest to decrease engagement in dishonest behaviours and/or promote honest behaviours? The design of the study incorporated an initial descriptive analysis to interpret students' responses to an 18-item questionnaire about justifications for dishonest action. This was followed by a qualitative analysis of students' commentaries in reference to why students would engage in either honest or dishonest action. Finally a qualitative analysis was conducted on students' views regarding solutions to dishonest action. The quantitative results showed that students were more likely to use time management and seriousness justifications for dishonest actions. The qualitative findings found that students' actions (honest or dishonest) were guided by family and friends, the need to do well, issues of morality and institutional guidelines. Students suggested that dishonest action could be ameliorated by external agencies and polarised views between punitive and rewards-based mechanisms were offered. These results suggest that these students engaged in dishonest action for various reasons and solutions addressing dishonest action need to consider diverse mechanisms that likely extend beyond the educational institution.