Dear Cheaters

Nursing Students General Students

Published

Open letter to cheaters:

If you think you are not harming anyone by your actions, you are wrong. You are very likely hurting not only yourself, and cheating yourself out of becoming the best nurse you can be, you are also harming your entire class, and very likely those who follow behind you. The consequences of cheating do affect the entire class, especially those students who put as much effort into studying for an exam, as you do figuring out a supposed easy way to pass. It creates an atmosphere on exam days that is hostile, which increases the anxiety of the entire class, and is especially harmful to those who already have test anxiety. The increase in anxiety causes those who studied hard to not perform as well as usual, or even improve significantly due to fear of being labeled a cheater. It also punishes those who worked hard, but are no longer allowed to learn from their mistakes due to not longer being able to review exams.

Basically cheaters suck, and it sucks being punished for the actions of another!

Signed,

Frustrated Nursing Student who is working her bum off to become a great nurse!

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yikes, that really sounds like a toxic atmosphere! I can't figure out how one would even cheat (not that I've put all that much thought into it, though) on an exam!

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Specializes in Hematology/Oncology.

shouldnt worry about being labeled as a cheater if you can teach the info

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Specializes in None.

I completely agree. Hopefully, karma will come around when it is time for the NCLEX, because I would NOT want someone that cheated through nursing school take care of me (or any of my family for that matter)…especially if I was in critical care.

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I would definitely bring it to the teachers attention. I have known a number of cheaters throughout my years and usually i dont care. BUT if you are in Nursing School and u r accountable for peoples well being you need to learn the material properly and retain it. I wouldnt want a nurse who passed by cheating to attend me. If you dont work hard while in school then you will definitely make a sucky nurse!!

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I would definitely bring it to the teachers attention. I have known a number of cheaters throughout my years and usually i dont care. BUT if you are in Nursing School and u r accountable for peoples well being you need to learn the material properly and retain it. I wouldnt want a nurse who passed by cheating to attend me. If you dont work hard while in school then you will definitely make a sucky nurse!!

The teachers are aware, which is part of what has caused the punishments to the rest of the class.

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So much cheating in my program - and some of it by people who are scholarship winners, which makes me so angry because they don't deserve that money. You'd think the teachers would have figured it out when these folks get to their clinicals and don't know anything, or when they get a 95 on a test and then get a 40 on a standardized test on the same topics. I can't prove these people are cheating and I only have my own reputation to worry about, so I worry most about making sure that I'm the best nurse possible.

Lord help you if you get one of them as a nurse though....they are awful.

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Specializes in ED, ICU, PSYCH, PP, CEN.

The cheaters never bothered me. Most of the class knows who they are and avoid them. I am only interested in what I can and do learn. Every cheater I have been around ends up not passing NCLEX, or they pass and get hired and then do very poorly in the halls of nursing and end up jumping from job to job, or getting fired alot.

Don't let them bother you

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The cheaters never bothered me. Most of the class knows who they are and avoid them. I am only interested in what I can and do learn. Every cheater I have been around ends up not passing NCLEX or they pass and get hired and then do very poorly in the halls of nursing and end up jumping from job to job, or getting fired alot. Don't let them bother you[/quote']

I originally took this stance when I would hear about people cheating, I thankfully never witnessed anything. However now that it is affecting me, I have a big problem with it. The atmosphere it has created in my class is quite hostile, and perhaps that is in part by the way it has been handled by staff, but it is still unfortunate. I do not blame the staff for how they are handling it, they are doing the best they can with the situation. BUT when it starts affecting my ability to learn and do well in spite of my hard work it bothers me. Which is why I wrote the post, if it makes even one person reconsider cheating, this post is worth it. Even if it is likely not the case.

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Specializes in Dialysis.
Open letter to cheaters:

If you think you are not harming anyone by your actions, you are wrong. You are very likely hurting not only yourself, and cheating yourself out of becoming the best nurse you can be, you are also harming your entire class, and very likely those who follow behind you. The consequences of cheating do affect the entire class, especially those students who put as much effort into studying for an exam, as you do figuring out a supposed easy way to pass. It creates an atmosphere on exam days that is hostile, which increases the anxiety of the entire class, and is especially harmful to those who already have test anxiety. The increase in anxiety causes those who studied hard to not perform as well as usual, or even improve significantly due to fear of being labeled a cheater. It also punishes those who worked hard, but are no longer allowed to learn from their mistakes due to not longer being able to review exams.

Basically cheaters suck, and it sucks being punished for the actions of another!

Signed,

Frustrated Nursing Student who is working her bum off to become a great nurse!

I completely understand what you are going through! By the time graduation came, I found out that more than half the class cheated (i kept to myself throughout the yr)! This however I learned is okay, bc karma is a ***** when the NCLEX comes around! 4 of them have already failed! Some are just good test-takers and Im sure thats how those passed lol. Just focus on yourself, and you'll feel more rewarded for your hardwork! Im sure that they will struggle more bc they never really LEARNED the material.

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When I went to LVN school.. A couple of my classmates were cheating. Everyone knew about it.. But the teachers or anyone couldn't really do anything about it cus they couldn't prove it. They all passed Term 1. Come Term 2 they all failed.. except the one who was providing them answers. I don't understand people cheating when it comes to nursing school. All these tests we take are to prepare us for NCLEX. If we "cheat" during nursing school were only hurting ourself cus we won't be able to pass the NCLEX. That's just my take on cheaters. I strongly believe in karma.

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Specializes in Hospice + Palliative.

I might be completely naive, but I can't even figure out how you'd cheat on a nursing exam?! Are they somehow signalling answers to each other (which seems pretty dumb to me, because you have to really trust that the person giving you the right answer is actually RIGHT!) I always wonder why the people who spend so much energy concocting elaborate methods to cheat don't just spend that time studying?!

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