Cheating

Nursing Students General Students

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I am a freshman student at a small university where the rules are pretty strict. Recently, while taking an exam, I realized one of my fellow students was cheating, then another has been taking photo's of our quizzes and tests, later txting our group saying this is what she did if anyone wants to "study" for our final coming up.

This really angered me as I work REALLY hard to get the grades I do and maintain the B average you have to have to stay in the classes and university nursing program, I let things go in my home and personal life to do the best I can do and know all that we need to learn and are told to study.

What would you do if you knew this was going on and both are against the code of conduct in your university/college? How would you handle this?

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Specializes in 4.

I have encountered something similar and to do the right thing, isn't always easy but I was raised to do so. So what did I do? I asked my professor to speak with me alone to the side and I told her what I encountered. I also told her that it is not my responsibility to monitor or watch my classmate but I found it to be distracting. From then on, my professor had my classmate take her tests right in front of her and eventually my classmate disappeared from class. So, to me there is no real question as to what I would do and it is inevitably your choice.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Remember too that cheaters get their just rewards. You can't cheat on NCLEX, and if someone tries, they may find themselves facing the reality of not being granted a license.

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Don't sweat it they will have all kinds of trouble passing ATI, HESI and NCLEX. Just think of all the money they have wasted.

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I hope they aren't sending out "revealing" text messages such as the photos themselves or any of the information that has been acquired. I would distance myself. If any unsolicited information showed up on my phone via text or was posted to the group I would report it.

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I'm finding myself in a similar situation. A person who is in my cohort, but a different rotation/clinical group, stopped on their way to the bathroom and asked me and 4 of my group mates a question related to a test they were currently taking. Myself and one other person out of the 5 of us realized this person was taking a test and cheating and we basically shut them down. We are discussing approaching the teacher. The thing is I'm not as angry that this person was cheating as much as I'm angry at this person for trying to take advantage of what they thought was our ignorance (I'm pretty sure they thought we didn't know they were taking an exam). Putting 5 other students in a situation where we could've been guilty of helping this person cheat was a very manipulative and unscrupulous thing to do.

I'm not one to be a tattle-tell. I'm just not one to stir the pot. But this is a Nursing student we are talking about. They are going into a profession where honesty and integrity are some of the most important qualities to have. Obviously we can't know that this behavior would carry over into their career, but it's certainly possible. The way I see it, if this person gets a slap on the wrist, it will hopefully make them think twice in the future.

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

If your school code of conduct/policy handbook says anything along the lines that having knowledge of such activities and not reporting it makes you complicit, then you should at least make an anonymous report. I think you should report it, regardless. Cheating is such bad form.

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What I did when I encountered this was recommend to my teacher that she changed seating for exams and had people put their cell phones face-down on top of their desks during the test. She caught the cheater on her own after instituting the rules and I didn't have to actually "tattle".

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Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
What I did when I encountered this was recommend to my teacher that she changed seating for exams and had people put their cell phones face-down on top of their desks during the test. She caught the cheater on her own after instituting the rules and I didn't have to actually "tattle".

I am surprised that cellphones are even allowed to be anywhere near a student during a test. My husband is a med student and can't have anything resembling a phone or even a smart watch during an exam, and their laptops have special software that locks them down during exams (they take exams on their own computers).

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