Ethics Violation-Would you remain silent or challenge the system?

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ortess1971

528 Posts

Specializes in OR.

Look, what it comes down to is these cheaters 1)can't pass a pre-requisite A&P test without cheating so they're either dumb or lazy-2 qualities we don't need in future nurses. 2) They're dishonest. I have made mistakes and have admitted to them. I may be a "newbie" nurse, but I've been in healthcare for 5 years as a surg tech and 2 years as a pharmacy tech...3) They threatened the person who called them on their behavior. No guilt, no remorse, so they may have sociopathic tendencies as well. Reebok, I'm hoping that your posts have been more to play devil's adcocate, because the fact that your slamming the OP for being honest while patting the cheaters on the back, scares me. And she was nicer than I would have been-I would have pointed it out right then and there, so the professor couldn't have used the "I didn't see anything" excuse..To the OP, you did NOTHING wrong. Hopefully, these people will be expelled and the professor discilplined. Now, I'm not necessarily pointing the "troll" finger at anyone, but I think the tone of a certain persons posts and the fact that he/she only has 10 posts to his or her name speakes volumes. Also, the fact that they mentioned that all the premium members are wrong kind of makes me think that either they started posting just to stir up stuff or they were a previous member who got banned and is now posting under a different name. Whatever. I find it hard to believe that anyone actually thinks cheating is a good idea. Good people of allnurses, I think we've been had! :)

pickledpepperRN

4,491 Posts

Dishonest people should not be entrusted with protecting patients lives. Wrong is not right.

For the record I have been nursing in five decades. I have made med errors, called the physician with the facts so the error could be mitigated. Then wrote the true facts on the chart and filled out an incident report with the facts.

I have accidentally run red lights three times (to my knowledge) in 47 years of driving. Once I was ticketed so I admitted it and went to traffic school.

I work with fine ethical people. Great nurses, caregivers, clerks, and housekeepers. Our patients get the finest care we can give.

As was said no one who would cheat and then threaten a fellow student for telling the truth should be a nurse.

Lie and cheat when caring for patients and, if proven, your license is revoked. Rightly so!

allnurses Guide

NurseCard, ADN

2,847 Posts

Specializes in Med/Surge, Psych, LTC, Home Health.
Why coulldn't the instructor grade the tests while he proctored the exam? Why didn't he want to hear about the cheating and address it? I think the only conclusion you can draw is that he wants students to cheat. He is a poor and lazy instructor who does not want to lose his job when all or most of his students fail.

Given this scenario, I'm not so sure the students are behaving unethically -- or it is at least a gray area. The instructor is setting the rules and being intentionally ambivalent about the expectations. We've all been in work and other situations where they have an official policy and anoher unwritten one (for reasonable or unethical reasons).

I don't think I would have cheated even under these circumstances but I have done similar things. For instance, we had a dosage calculation test at one facility that the clinical instructor chose to have us all do together, giving us the correct answers. Did I tell her this was unethical and that I wanted to do the test on my own and live with the consequences of failing. No. It's her class, not mine.

The A&P instructor is the bad guy here. The students are just following his lead. He is the one who should be confronted and reported and disciplined.

Yeah, but in many cases a teacher WILL let the class know, pretty much, that a test is "open book" and that they may use whatever resources necessary. If the students "cheat" in this case, it certainly isn't non-ethical, since the expectations and the rules were made pretty clear in advance.

In the OP's case, I'm seeing that the professor, while he didn't proctor the exam like he should have, did NOT expect nor allow the students to cheat.

kukukajoo, LPN

1,310 Posts

So because the teacher left the room is it okay to cheat? Does that also mean that when on the job and nobody is looking it is okay to bend the rules, not follow sterile procedure, reuse needles, divert narcs, etc.??

Specializes in post-op.

To the OP, I had a smiliar situation when I took Anatomy. We had lab practical exams (bones/muscles and such where we had to name what was tagged). These kind of exams are probably hard to watch what everyone is doing as there is a lot of movement going on, but absolutely no talking. Anyway I saw a student (who had failed Anatomy previously and was already a nursing student) cheating by having a kleenex in her hand with words/pictures on it. I knew that the professor wouldn't be able to do much without witnessing it, but I sure as heck told her. There are way too many people who studied there butts off to pass those exams. The person who cheated found out that I said something and ended up confronting me about it in the middle of lab, several weeks later, in a very immature way. She put her hand in my face and was talking to me very snotty in front of my lab partners. I then put my hand in her face and asked her how she liked it and then she actually punched me! It was ridiculous, I left the class (crying :(

Anyway not much came out of it, The school asked me if I wanted to press charges against her and I declined as it was not worth my time to have to go to court. Do I regret telling, NO WAY! Come to find out that was not the 1st time she became physical with someone at school. Would you want someone like that being your nurse? Not me. I have no idea what became of her, but someone who acts like that is not going to make it very far. Anyways...just thought you might like to know that you are not the only one who has come forward when witnessing something like that. Good for you :)

lol, I really should be studying nursing geriatrics, but i couldn't help but reply. Rebox's opinion on cheating is shady, and he gives extreme rare examples of someone who is caring for family etc and didn't have time to study as an excuse for cheating.

Cheating is a symptom of dishonesty, and they know the risks involved with cheating. So if they get caught they brought it onto themselves. No it does not mean 100 % they will be bad nurses later on BUT the risks are higher that they will behave unethically as a future nurse and if it was up to me, i wouldn't want them as my nurse either, if they cheated through school and learned nothing. We are talking about taking care of people's lives, something that cannot be replaced by money, which comes with great responsibility.

I've been both an A student and a D student, and the amount of knowledge between the two is profound.:trout:

BabyRN2Be

1,987 Posts

I agree in that you did the right thing. The least this professor could do is have one of his GA's (graduate assistants if you are at a larger university) sit in on the test.

As others have said, you need to go up the food chain, write a letter to the department chair explaining what happened, along with the professor's reaction to what you witnessed. The least it could do is go into his personnel file but I hope that someone higher up listens.

I feel for you because I've been in this situation before, and you did the right thing. It's shows you have a lot of courage.

casi, ASN, RN

2,063 Posts

Specializes in LTC.

I say way to go to the OP!

People cheat for a lot of different reasons, they may have a sob story, or they may just be lazy. Either way it doesn't make blatantly cheating okay! If you're going to make the decision to cheat you need to be able to face the consequences of your actions when and if you get caught.

There are plenty of A and B students who single parents of two working full time and going to school full time who ARE NOT cheating.

tddowney

162 Posts

"Lie and cheat when caring for patients and, if proven, your license is revoked. Rightly so!"

The consequences may be much more than losing one's license. A civil suit is likely, and criminal charges are more common these days.

reebok

28 Posts

Since you addressed this directly to me, I will respond.

I am not perfect. I have made mistakes and done wrong, and have been held responsible for my wrong-doings, ever since I was a little kid. I suspect that has a lot to do with my sense of values and honor as an adult. My religious faith teaches compassion for the sinner who CONFESSES, asks for forgiveness, forgives others, and does pennance, all of which is missing from the OP's situation.

Of course there are situations in which it is appropriate to "bend" the rules, such as the daughter speeding to get her ill father to the ER. There is no evidence that any of the cheaters in the original post had any extenuating circumstances that prevented them from being prepared for the test. If they did, it was their responsibility to discuss those with the prof BEFORE the test, not cheat their way thru the test and beg for mercy later (which they have not had to do, aparently due to the lack of integrity on the prof's part).

Please don't lecture me about employees who can combine common sense with nursing intervention rather than following the rule book. I've been there many times, and done just that. I've arranged for a family Baptism celebration for a long-term preemie, even though "rules" didn't allow it. It just took a little prior planning, something the baby's family was happy to work on. I've accompanied newborns to ICU to visit their critically-ill mothers, even though rules didn't permit it. Again, just a little prior planning with the ICU staff. The difference here is that the "rule-breaking" was PLANNED in advance so that it wouldn't place anyone in harm's way, a far cry from cheating on a test.

So it's okay to bend rules only if its planned in advance. I think according to Law Premeditated murder would give a more harsh charge than someone who reacted out of passion.

Ignorantium Argumentum: There is no evidence that any of the cheaters had any extenuating circumstances that prevented them from being prepared for the test.

There is no evidence that there wasn't any cheaters with extenuating circumstances that prevented them from being prepared for the test.

pickledpepperRN

4,491 Posts

Arranging a baptism in the NICU and helping a critically ill mother see her baby are examples of patient advocacy.

We once went through channels to allow a dying patients beloved dog visit. The ethics committe actually helped expedite a new policy that basically required the dog be bathed the same as therapy dogs and only visit his master. There wasn't a dry eye when we made that reunion happen.

Cheating on a test and dishonest charting are NOT patient advocacy.

Once the supervisor and I reported a nurse for charting for the entire shift. At 11:00 pm I was sent to replace him. He had charted vital sighns, medication administration, and even I&O up until 6:00 am!

He lost his license.

IMustBeCrazy

439 Posts

The amount of energy being expended by some posters here supporting cheating is mind-boggling at best. The analogies used are like a house of cards -- question one detail and the whole deck falls.

OF COURSE let someone know. And, I agree with another poster, your classmates can consider themselves extremely lucky that I wasn't in the class with them, because I would have stood up and embarrassed them in front of God and everyone.

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