UTHSC Honor Code & Fieldwork

 When I began my OT didactic work in January 2020, UTHSC required all students to sign the Honor Code Pledge. The Honor Code Pledge says that as a UTHSC student, you have read through the entire Honor Code, understand its meaning and significance, and agree to uphold it the entire time you are a student at UTHSC. Before I signed the Honor Code Pledge, I thought it was just going to be a promise to not cheat, plagiarize or share information with others. However, after taking time to read through each part of the Honor Code, I realized it was much more than that. 

The Honor Code states that all students are required to “exemplify personal integrity and responsibility in the classroom, laboratory, clinics, and other academic endeavors”.  For the past 21 months of my didactic work exemplifying integrity and responsibilities in the classroom and lab settings has been my main concern. Our professors have had to rely heavily on UTHSC’s Honor Code considering majority of assignments, quizzes, and tests were administered virtually due to COVID. However, this unique situation gave me, and all my classmates, a chance to show that we are trustworthy, respectable and will uphold the Honor Code in all situations. As our didactic portion of school ends and we prepare to move into 6 months of clinicals, it is important to understand that this Honor Code is not something that just goes away because we are not working on full class assignments. 

During our Fieldwork rotations, it is more important than ever for us as UTHSC students to uphold and implement the Honor Code when working with our clients and in our facilities. The Honor Code expects us to always interact with our patients and coordinators professionally and ethically. As an occupational therapy student, this means exercising our AOTA Code of Ethics throughout the entire fieldwork experience and always doing what is just and right for the client and facility. This is not only what is expected by UTHSC, but also what is expected to be an ethically grounded OT with a strong OT identify. That it is why it is important to periodically familiarize ourselves with not only our Honor Code, the AOTA Code of Ethics, and the facility’s expectations and regulations to ensure we are upholding a pledge we took at the beginning of our school and becoming the most professionally and ethically grounded practitioner.