Cheating in the Classroom

It was widely discussed in my BSN program about the practice of nursing instructors submitting student papers for publication as their own. The nursing school administration confronted my class one day and gave a big spiel on cheating and the consequences and made us sign documents. I sat there and thought to myself, "You people have the nerve!"

Where were they publishing them? In the Weekly Reader? This definitely would not fly in my CON. I say this after the eye-opening experience of grading scores of undergraduate student papers - many of these would easily pass for high school or junior high school papers . Ethical issues aside, none of these papers would qualify for publication.

When I sat for my LPN boards, there were of course other people there taking tests for other licenses as well -- not just nurses. About half way thru the test, 4 people come in, went to a person sitting several cubes down from me, told her "get your things and come with us." My first thought was, "things? she has things? I didn't get to keep my things...."

I don't know if she was there for LPN, RN, or some other license, but they took her out and she never came back. I always wondered if she was like the ones in my class that used the "cellphone calculator" to text each other the answers...you may get to do it in class, but they watch you like a hawk during your boards....

I agree 100% that the faculty who did this should have been fired. Wow.

I never had anyone tell me that my papers were worthy of the Weekly Reader. I read plenty of work that needed to be retouched in an ESL class, but that was not my shot to call. I am only stating what went on at my school. It was important enough to be talked about for years and I didn't see anything funny about it. And common sense would say that the instructors reworked the papers to make them ready for publication. Since they got published, somebody thought the original work was up to some standard. Personally, since they felt it necessary to threaten students with expulsion for cheating, I feel the guilty instuctors should have been fired.

Not disputing what you're saying, but I have heard of PhD students' papers being stolen by faculty to be used in publications (mainly in the peer review process). (Not at my university, however.) This possibly MIGHT occur in Masters programs. It would be EXTREMELY rare for this to occur in undergraduate programs.

I was recently at my chemo therapy class where there is this test at the very end. I was surprised when some nurses (not students, RNS), from the university (OHSU) were boldly going over the answers and then arguing over one, too much!!! And the irony to this cheating business, I and others witnessed this. I was to put it mildly, shocked. I even told the instructors (from OHSU) about it while they were grading the tests and they didn't even flinch. Isn't that strange? Shouldn't a university have higher standards?

Or how about HESI cheating. We were divided into three groups to take the HESI with a lime limit of a couple of hours. The first group started at 830, the second started at 1130, and the third group started at 1300. By the time the 1300 group started, their buddies had already called them with "heads up" on questions that were on the exam.

I taught briefly in an LPN program and cheating was rampant there, as well. The policy was that confirmed cheaters were to fail the class and would need to reapply to the program for the next year. Sadly, had that actually been implemented, we would not have had a graduating class for the two years that I was there. Although exams were well-proctored, I would estimate that 90% or more plagiarized their term papers, at least in part, and the majority of them cut and pasted entired paragraphs from the internet. Several turned in papers that were printed directly from the source, complete with web address at the bottom, and one went so far as to purchse his. What a disappointment.

I think what is at fault here is in my situation when given the opportunity to use one's notes and book to take an exam, perhaps the test givers are reluctant to sit and observe us or perhaps believe that all nurses follow a certain law of conduct. As I witnessed, that sadly is not always the case!

I don't know how other instructors proctor tests, but we are only allowed to use school issued calculators, bookbags and purses are not allowed in the room on test day, and we aren't even allowed to have a water bottle-even a can of soda. They are VERY strict about cheating at my school...and this past semester we even had a very angry group of subpar students accuse some of the above-par students of cheating on a test.

Or how about HESI cheating. We were divided into three groups to take the HESI with a lime limit of a couple of hours. The first group started at 830, the second started at 1130, and the third group started at 1300. By the time the 1300 group started, their buddies had already called them with "heads up" on questions that were on the exam.

Then it is there fault for scheduling it like that. Like waving a cookie in everyone face and expecting every single one to have the self control to not take it.