Friends cheating.. what to do?

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I have quite the dilemma here. We have a med-surg final coming up in a few weeks, and many of the questions will be from previous exams. I don't know about your schools, but my nursing school does alot to ensure that no one has written record of test questions (for example, during a test review we aren't allowed to take any notes, we never get tests back, etc). One girl has somehow obtained copies of all the previous exams and is talking about distributing them to our classmates. The problem is, everyone involved are very close friends of mine who have always had great character and integrity and I am completely shocked they are doing this. There are tons of people who need to ace the final in order to even pass the class, but not these people. It is so unfair to those whose grades are hanging in the balance and it is just plain wrong. I'm afraid that if I tell the prof they will get in big trouble, and I'm the only person who knows about this who isn't participating, so I will lose many close friends. Any advice?

@ CuriousMe if you read my post correctly that's exactly what I said, by him snitching yes it would get his friend kicked out. I didnt say he was gonna get kicked out for telling. Yes I said it snitching, call it what you want. He should mind his business and so should you.

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It's a difficult situation, but if they are willing to cheat through school, what are they going to do if/when they are out practicing in the real world? If they can't make it through nursing school without cheating, how do they expect to pass the NCLEX? And if somehow they pass that, how do they expect to practice in a knowledgeable and safe manner? Would you want someone like that to be your mother's nurse? Your child's nurse? I surely wouldn't; and I wouldn't want to work with someone with that lack of integrity. We don't need people like that in the nursing field.

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@ CuriousMe if you read my post correctly that's exactly what I said, by him snitching yes it would get his friend kicked out. I didnt say he was gonna get kicked out for telling. Yes I said it snitching, call it what you want. He should mind his business and so should you.

Reporting cheating doesn't get someone kicked out....cheating does. In fact, the opposite of your statement is true in my school....my honor code states that not reporting cheating will get you kicked out.

If someone accused you of cheating, and you didn't cheat...you wouldn't be kicked out.

However, if you cheated and were discovered (either a Prof saw you or someone reported it) you'd be kicked out.

Perhaps it's you who should mind your business? I hear there's a game of dogeball at recess...

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@ CuriousMe if you read my post correctly that's exactly what I said, by him snitching yes it would get his friend kicked out. I didnt say he was gonna get kicked out for telling. Yes I said it snitching, call it what you want. He should mind his business and so should you.

Well, to get technical, the cheating is what gets you kicked out, not someone else telling. Besides, the OP probably isn't the only one who's going to report them. If it were me in this position, I would rather not associate with unethical people, much less let them get away with what they are doing.

There are a lot of people who still cheat their way through life and they tend to get all defensive when this type of question comes up.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Wow I am glad most of you arent my "friend". Lord knows I have done some stupid things in my life and my TRUE friends were there to set me straight.

Second I would report it to the instructor.

And yes cheating nurses can pass boards. I have known of several and work with one.

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First of all...

These people are not your friends. I would not be friends with a wife-beating, drug addict because our morals would be worlds apart. You need to distance yourself from these people NOW.

And... yes, you really are morally responsable to report this. We all need to be patient advocates and, you know what, that is going to mean doing and saying some things that make us uneasy but it needs to be done. People cheating through nursing school are showing that they lack the honesty to be nurses and that can never be tolerated.

Here is something else to think about... a friend of mine was given her one and only fail because she knew about a cheating scam going on and did not report it. She was allowed to come back and is graduating with us in two weeks but she was reprimanded for not coming forward.

You are going to lose some friends and some dreams are going to be crushed but these people should not be nurses. I myself would be tempted to "mind my own buisness" but this is a completely different situation... if you do not speak up you will be selling out your duty to uphold the moral standards of your profession.

This is a a test.

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Specializes in CNA.

That is a horrid situation.

I have 4 weeks of nursing school left and would not want anything to do with what you are going through. Honestly, I would try to get as far away from the situation as I possibly could.

What a bunch of morons. There is no way something like having copies of exams stays a secret.

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I'm no tattle tale...but in cases of cheating... TURN THAT MESS IN. Not to get them caught or in trouble, but to let them know slide by with it. Email the teacher(who cares if the teacher knows your name, they will NOT disclose who told them), and they will end up mixing up the questions or finding new ones. This happened when I was in the BSN program. People would try hand down the old exams, and the teacher would catch wind of it...change the exam, or at least mix up the answers or word it to where it was a different answer. Example...we had Peds, OB, and Gero one semester. This girl had the old Peds and Ob finals...she would be all snooty and snarky, guard her notebooks like it was her life and laugh off the people studying. Surprisingly, during the finals she broke out into tears and was freaking out with the "hooooooly sh*t" look. She failed both Peds and OB, no more nursing for her. Friends or not, turn that mess in to the teacher.

To those who keep saying mind your business and that it will catch up to them. I doubt it. The NCLEX was not bad at all. You can pass that test without studying much of anything really. And if they can put on a smile or they know someone in the right place...they could cheat their way through nursing school, pick up an NCLEX review book or do HURST review, pass the NCLEX, and walk right into a mushy doctor's office, nursery, etc. job of their dreams...all the meanwhile having no regrets and laughing inside about how they cheated through school. Now if it did catch up to them, it would be in the real world on a real person...also not good. So let the teacher know, end of story. Last thing, if I were the teacher and I found out that the whole class knew about this, I would bring hell for the whole class since no one wanted to report it. Remember, NOT reporting counts as being guilty too. It would be really easy for someone to throw your name out there and you go down with them

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Nope I wouldn't snitch, especially if they are my friends. How would you feel knowing you got your "friend" kicked out the Nursing program? Worry about yourself, sooner or later it will catch up to them.

I see where you are coming from. IMHO, some of the people who are telling the OP to simply not care about what happens to her friends are not being realistic. Most people I know care about what happens to their friends. They do not want to see thier friends get expelled from school and be out thousands of dollars and a couple of years.

I like the idea of doing an anonymous email as long as you DO NOT mention any names or any specifics. This way the teacher can change the test if she wants to, your friends will not get in trouble, and you conscious can be clear. That is about all you can do.

Anyway good luck and do whatever feels right to you.

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I see where you are coming from. IMHO, some of the people who are telling the OP to simply not care about what happens to her friends are not being realistic. Most people I know care about what happens to their friends. They do not want to see thier friends get expelled from school and be out thousands of dollars and a couple of years.

I like the idea of doing an anonymous email as long as you DO NOT mention any names or any specifics. This way the teacher can change the test if she wants to, your friends will not get in trouble, and you conscious can be clear. That is about all you can do.

Anyway good luck and do whatever feels right to you.

I don't understand this perception: If I report someone else's cheating and they get kicked out....they're getting kicked out because they chose to cheat, not because I reported them.

That's like saying a bank robber went to jail because of an eyewitness's testimony....no, the bank robber goes to jail because they robbed a bank.

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your friends are losers. no offense.

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your friends are losers. no offense.

Agreed. This whole "I won't tell on my friend, how would you feel if you got your friend kicked out" idea, is stupid

The people telling you not to report it are relying on "karma" it seems like. Well that karma can come back to get you too for not doing the right thing, ever think about that? Suppose you end up failing, and they end up passing via cheating..big kick in the nads there? but heyyyyyyy that's just that karma kicking in. Do the right thing, report it. Karma works for EVERYONE involved ;)

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