frustrated

[amymina]

I am enrolled in a 2 year program for my RN degree and am almost there - due to graduate in May. I am so excited to be almost done. But there is something going on that I can't get off my mind. In the last few weeks I have had clinical with another student that is going around bragging that she didn't have to follow the attendance policy and still passed all of the classes. She would switch off with a friend and they would sign each other in. Our campus has a very strict policy. You can miss up to three classes through the semester, anything more than that and they start taking 2 pts off your final average. The fact that she did this has made me upset, there are other students that have failed in the past due to this rule, even if the absenses were out of their control. I want to say something, but we are so close to the end I don't know if it matters. But I am worried she is going to be one of the nurses that either will make a mistake and hide it, which could cost someone their life, or not really know something because she missed too many classes. Should I say something, or just keep my mouth shut and remind myself that she is just hurting herself with these actions?

[TXLVNSTUDENT12]

TEI SAY DO WAT YOU FEEL......FORGET THESE OTHER POSTs

[morte, LPN, LVN]

My thought: do you want to be the nurse following this twit? Do you want to take care of a patient that she has screwed up the care of and not told anyone?

[Ladyj83]

I definitely understand your frustration. It's like she's getting a free ride because she's working with someone. There won't always be someone there for her to cover her behind, so I'm sure one day it will come back and bite her, but at whose expense? The patients probably. You've legitimately worked hard and followed rules to get where you are while someone else works on the buddy system. I'm not sure that you should aim for getting her kicked out, but I don't know if I would be able to keep my mouth shut either.

I question what else she would cut corners on to make her life easier.

Best of Luck.

[criticalRN10]

I think you all are confusing attending lectures with patient care. They are two different things.

[CuriousMe]

I think you all are confusing attending lectures with patient care. They are two different things.

True but ethics (or a lack of them) are ethics no matter the venue. It seems unlikely this student would lie to take shortcuts that make her life easier (and actually has a system to do so) in one area of her life and not in another.

[criticalRN10]

True but ethics (or a lack of them) are ethics no matter the venue. It seems unlikely this student would lie to take shortcuts that make her life easier (and actually has a system to do so) in one area of her life and not in another.

or maybe she studies her butt off at home and feels that the lectures do nothing to help her... you guys jump to conclusions about people's moral fiber way too quickly. If it were up to me, I would never go to class. It doesn't help. At all. At least at our school there's nothing that's said in class that isn't clearly stated in the textbooks (most of which our professors wrote). They don't add anything of value. When I am at the hospital, I love it. I love everything about it and I'm careful and I don't cut corners...they are two different things.

[CuriousMe]

or maybe she studies her butt off at home and feels that the lectures do nothing to help her... you guys jump to conclusions about people's moral fiber way too quickly. If it were up to me, I would never go to class. It doesn't help. At all. At least at our school there's nothing that's said in class that isn't clearly stated in the textbooks (most of which our professors wrote). They don't add anything of value. When I am at the hospital, I love it. I love everything about it and I'm careful and I don't cut corners...they are two different things.

I couldn't care less who went to class when. This isn't about the value of lectures.

The problem is getting someone to sign in for her on a regular basis....essentially lying by saying she was there when she wasn't. Then lying again by signing in her friend when she wasn't there.

If she doesn't value the lecture, be honest: don't go and don't have someone sign you in.

[mangopeach]

I would mind my own business. True her ethics are in question by having someone else sign her in, but I have enough problems of my own than to be worried about whether another student is lying about being in class or not. But thats me, I think some people spend too much time worrying about what other folks are doing. Just because she's lied about being in class does not mean she would be a danger to a patient. There are times as others have said, that I have learned the material better on my own than sitting in a 4 hour lecture. So just because she did not make it to class does not mean she's not learning the material. I agree her integrity is in question here, but IMO, this is one of those situations that you mind your own business. I would not let this frustrate me at all.

[Streamline2010]

Is this a college program? Don't the grads of it, for the same state board license exam requirements as all other RN schools, have to have taken x hours of classroom and x hours of clinical instruction to be eligible to sit for the NCLEX? If so, she and her pal may be well below that legal requirement, if they have skipped a lot of lectures. The school I attend passes around a sign-in sheet every hour, to track attendance, because people left early via the back door at break after they'd signed in earlier in that hour. Hence, we have to sign for every hour.

[Moogie]

The kind of person who does a stunt like this will probably have co-workers punch her time clock when she's late or wants to leave early. That kind of behavior will get her fired.

If she's ethically challenged enough to do this and stupid enough to be bragging about it to other classmates, someone should bring it to the attention of the instructor. If she's flagrantly violating a strict attendance policy the school needs to know.