Hello all! I am currently having an ethical dilemma and am in need of some opinions/advice from current nurses, CRNA students, and practicing CRNAs. I found this board and thought it would be a perfect place to get some feedback. It is important to note, I am NOT a nurse, CRNA, or CRNA student.
This is my problem- I recently was asked by a CRNA student to assist with researching and writing a paper for one of his/her core courses in his/her CRNA/MSN program. However, I ended up doing 100 percent of this person's research and wrote about 75 percent of the paper. I should also note that this was a major research paper and took a great amount of time to both research and write and totaled about 25 pages when complete. The student ended up with the highest grade in his/her class and I believe the paper constituted the majority of his/her grade. The student asked for my help because he/she chose to take a vacation immediately prior to the end of the semester and could not complete all of the work he/she needed to by the end of the semester. I agreed to help out because I thought I was helping out a friend.
I have come to regret helping out for various reasons, but mostly I have realized that this may have been unethical on my part and unfair to other students. I have also began to sincerely question the honesty and integrity of the individual who I helped out since after getting to know him/her a little better I have come to learn that he/she is not the most ethical person in the world in most areas of his/her life. In fact, he/she never stops to think if what he/she is doing is wrong or what effect his/her actions might have on others.
In a way, I was thinking of coming forward to satisfy my own guilt, but also to teach this person a lesson. However, I don't want to ruin his/her life and have no idea if something like this could potentially get him/her kicked out of school. So since I have absolutely no experience in your field, have no idea on the amount of emphasis on ethical behavior in your field, or the type of colleagues you all deal with on a daily basis I just wanted to get some feedback on what you would want to happen in this situation.
-Would you care if your classmate cheated?
-Is ethical makeup and personal integrity even a consideration in your field?
-If this was one of your classmates would you want them exposed?
-If I come forward, will this get him/her kicked out of the program- how seriously is this type of violation taken in a CRNA program?
thanks for posting back this was a interesting thread. tough question, with a lot of varying opinions, no real cut throat answer. i'm glad you were able to see fault in what you did and learned a lesson. hopefully this person will change but by the sounds of them, not likely. if this person does make it out to the real world of giving anesthesia, i hope s/he doesn't cheat his/her own patients.
Old-gas is a yahoo group that is open only to AANA members and students. I am not sure, but you may be able to read only and not post by going to yahoo groups.
Having read all of the posts here and on old-gas, the CRNAs were much less forgiving than the people on this forum. Old-gas has the creme-de-la-creme of the nurse anesthesiology profession on it, including many current board members, current and past-presidents of the AANA, a lot of educators and many people who are active and involved with the profession, legislation, PR and all aspects of clinical anesthesia. We all work hard for the profession and are rather unforgiving for lack of professionalism and ethics. We tend to be somewhat different from main-stream nursing in that we nuture our young, instead of eating them, and we expect a lot in return from them.
it sounds like you feel what you did was wrong. turning him/her in at this point does not improve the situation. chalk it up as a learning experience for yourself.
I understand you feeling guilty - but also - there seems to be a little anger/resentment that this other individual received such a high mark due to YOUR work. I actually think it would be unethical to tattle - I mean you knew what you were doing was wrong to begin with - this other individual obviously has issues - but you cheated as much as they did. hope it doesn't sound too harsh - i don't really mean it that way - it is just how i see it.
i would not turn this person in. if this was a true friend i don't think you would be asking this question. the fact that you agreed to do this puts half of the fault on you. this person cheated themselves and his/her classmates. this will not lead to him/her killing people in the OR, his/her clinical skills will determine that. if he/she continues to be unethical in their decision making, it will sooner or later catch up to them.
if you feel guilty about writing his/her paper just think about how guilty you will feel when s/he gets kicked out of school ruining his/her chance in persuing their dreams. talk to this person and tell them how you feel and make sure they understand how serious this is. hopefully they will grow up quick and learn a valuable lesson, and eventually become a great/ethical nurse anesthetist.
we all make mistake and sometimes take shortcuts we should'nt but don't always necessarily need to be hung for it.
I cannot help but ask what if the student had received a grade D for the research paper would we be having this discussion? Since it is an ethical dilemma all aspects need to be taken into account. Would we still be discussing the unfairness to the other students? All opinions aside, this was a good discussion.
P.s. I do not not think it is right to write a research paper for another student.
Academic policies are clearly outlined in all student handbooks. This is academic dishonesty.
I am not sure if you knew from the onset the level of help you were to going to give (editing - style). The student made a conscious decision to submit the paper.
The more I think about this... I question how someone in a masters program could have that much difficulty writing a paper. This person wanted to take short cuts.
We need all APN's, but I recognize the life and death decisions that a CRNA's makes in seconds/minutes... There is no room for this person. There is no room for shortcuts in the OR.
HATS OFF TO CRNA's.
Consider submitting the article for publication next time,
ctbsurf
62 Posts
thanks for posting back this was a interesting thread. tough question, with a lot of varying opinions, no real cut throat answer. i'm glad you were able to see fault in what you did and learned a lesson. hopefully this person will change but by the sounds of them, not likely. if this person does make it out to the real world of giving anesthesia, i hope s/he doesn't cheat his/her own patients.