THE CASE-STUDY APPROACH TO TEACHING SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY IN NURSING AND THE BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Scientific integrity courses for graduate trainees are emerging at man y institutions. The content of such courses varies and is evolving as faculty strive to meet the needs of their specific student audiences. Typical course subject matters include responsible authorship, conflic t of interest, handling of scientific misconduct, data management, and the use of humans and animals in biomedical experimentation. These an d other topic areas are amenable to teaching methods that use the case study approach. In this article we discuss our experiences in teachin g scientific integrity using the case study approach. Issues covered i nclude underlying philosophy of the approach, preparation and use of c ases, desired in-class teaching skills, and the involvement of faculty in case preparation and teaching. Examples of short cases are present ed and, where appropriate, discussed in the context of these issues.