Have you ever cheated in school ? Would you ever cheat if you could get away with it?
Cheating - copying stuff that's not yours - tests, homework, projects and/or other assignments.
Scenario 1:
While taking an exam, your professor left the classroom. You're seated beside a straight-A student. Would you peak to that student's paper? (Note: You can get away with it! You will not get caught!)
Scenario 2:
Your teacher is in the classroom giving a final exam. You are allowed to use your cellphone as a calculator. You are using an iPhone and can access the internet. Would you look into Google to find the answer to a question you do not know?
So, does anyone of you ever cheated in nursing school? at least once or maybe a lot of times? Could you share some of your experiences if you got caught or if you got away with it? Did you feel bad/guilty about it afterward?
I'm just curious, so please don't think that this thread is offensive in anyway. I have to admit that I cheated before. I copied someone's homework, I looked into my seatmates' test paper. I wrote some medical dosages' formula in my desk.
There's also this cliche that goes "When you cheat, you're really cheating yourself." I say this is BS - especially in school. Tuition nowadays is over the top particularly nursing. Not to mention how hard it is to get in into the damn program.
It is only natural the way some people react to the topic of cheating. Especially in nursing, where morals and ethics are a huge part of it. Not to mention, people's lives are involved. I'm sorry but I think that cheating is TOTALLY wrong and immoral!!! Even if there is a golden opportunity to cheat on homework or an exam, I would never take advantage of the situation. If only there were neon signs over nurse's heads that said "I cheated in Nursing School" you better believe I wouldn't want any of them taking care of my love ones. I will admit, I have turned in someone in my class for cheating. I saw her writing concepts on her hands before a midterm. She obviously wasn't very smart about it, she wrote on her hands in front of me and two other classmates. We were livid. That person got kicked out of the program, she got what she deserved. I don't feel one bit of guilt for it. In fact, the Director and several instructors commended me for my honesty and bravery. No one ever said that nursing school would be easy. Why should anyone believe that they are an exception to rule because it is expensive and/or hard to get into the program.
I've never cheated...not in school, not in marriage, not in charting. And, yes, I do equate them.
Dishonesty (in my opinion) is not so much something you do, as someone you ARE. If someone cheats on a test in nursing school it may seem unimportant -- but I guarantee the same person who takes the easy way out in class is going to do the same thing in patient care.
Integrity is being the same person all the time...even when nobody's looking.
The level of cheating I guess depends on the program. I am more than willing to admit that a few study buddies and I "team-worked" homework and lab assignments that weren't necessarily supposed to be team assignments. Even writing formulas on desks, hands, etc. isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you know how to do the calculation and get to the right answer instead of just copying an answer.
During senior year acute care, we had to do an online supplementary course to our classwork. It was 'supposed' to be independent, but a few different groups of people would have one person go through on assessment mode to get the answers and then email it to the rest of the group. So when they went through the course on test mode they got all the right answers. Now I know it was a stupid supplement and it was time consuming, but the school did pay for it, we did get charged for it whether we used it or not, and some of that material was on the test even though it wasn't in class. I felt so uncomfortable with it that I ended up talking to the prof about those that I knew were involved. Because a) it was plain flat out, bald faced cheating on a pretty large scale, and b) if the profs found out that every one in the class knew what was going on and no one reported it, she would have failed us all on the online courses.
And I hate to disagree with the author of the original post, but I do think that cheating is cheating yourself. You aren't going to remember something that you never really learned in the first place. Its kind of like the difference between white lies and really bad ones; there are grey areas. And you do learn to take certain 'shortcuts' in nursing that aren't necessarily cheating, because anyone who has ever done clinicals knows that how you get taught to do it isn't necessarily the easiest or best way.
"Even writing formulas on desks, hands, etc. isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as you know how to do the calculation and get to the right answer instead of just copying an answer."
Geez! Silly me! All the studying I did and I could have written the formula on my hand! I guess when the school's code of conduct stated 'No cheating will be tolerated!', I guess that's not what they REALLY meant!!":confused:
"Its kind of like the difference between white lies and really bad ones; there are grey areas. And you do learn to take certain 'shortcuts' in nursing that aren't necessarily cheating, because anyone who has ever done clinicals knows that how you get taught to do it isn't necessarily the easiest or best way."
I am REALLY confused. I think that there is a big difference between 'shortcuts' and 'cheating'. If I bandage a wound a bit differently then another nurse, then that MIGHT be a 'shortcut', and that might be 'a better way of doing it' and it might EVEN be a new way of doing it, but it is not cheating. I am pretty sure that it is universal in most every nursing school that you as a student, agree to a code of conduct . This code includes rules about cheating. Cheating (as pertains to school) is giving yourself an advantage over your fellow students. Its not about 'white lies' and 'gray areas'. So having said that, can
please explain to me
1) How much cheating is not really cheating? and 2) Is it only cheating when you get caught 3) Is it not considered cheating when you don't get caught?
NO THE HELL WAY would I cheat! And risk getting kicked out of school? Crazy! Have I thought about it? Sure, I've wished I could peek at my notes or ask a friends, but I would not take the chance. This girl in my lab class peeked in my book as she walked by me to turn in her test and she wrote down the answer. It made me so mad! I told her she needed to tell the professor but she didn't and I never had the opportunity.
I take too much pride walking out of my exam yesterday with a 95% and seeing the class average to ever cheat. Guess, what - I KNOW that material in a way that no cheater ever will and that will help me the rest of my career.
Yes, there are grey areas. I would NEVER copy off of a never person or write actual answers on my hand.
And the whole "is it only cheating if you get caught" question is simply a repetitious statement. You can't compare doing a dressing change differently to cheating because you are comparing apples to oranges. One is obviously wrong while the other is a shortcut. And as far as codes of conducts are concerned, yes, there are grey areas. Is helping another student with something they didn't know cheating? According to the wording of certain codes of conduct, sure. How about sharing notes with someone? Also could be considered cheating.
This kind of "I did it the only correct way possible so I am better than everyone else here" attitude is what lends to the concept that nurses eat their young. Nursing school IS NOT about making sure you come out on top of every one else but learning as much as you can so you don't end up killing someone out of negligence or ignorance.
i cheated a TON in high school, never on tests, just homework. and like someone mentioned above, i had to do a lot of studying to make up for it for tests. i have zero guilt about it at all. i haven't cheated since being in college, i take a lot of pride in earning my good grades.
oh well actually, we had all of our homework and chapter tests for statistics online, which me and my roommate worked on together when we were really stumped.
oh well. i still know that i earned my A (midterm and final were in class) and am very proud of it
lackofsleep
4 Posts
It is only natural the way some people react to the topic of cheating. Especially in nursing, where morals and ethics are a huge part of it. Not to mention, people's lives are involved. I'm sorry but I think that cheating is TOTALLY wrong and immoral!!! Even if there is a golden opportunity to cheat on homework or an exam, I would never take advantage of the situation. If only there were neon signs over nurse's heads that said "I cheated in Nursing School" you better believe I wouldn't want any of them taking care of my love ones. I will admit, I have turned in someone in my class for cheating. I saw her writing concepts on her hands before a midterm. She obviously wasn't very smart about it, she wrote on her hands in front of me and two other classmates. We were livid. That person got kicked out of the program, she got what she deserved. I don't feel one bit of guilt for it. In fact, the Director and several instructors commended me for my honesty and bravery. No one ever said that nursing school would be easy. Why should anyone believe that they are an exception to rule because it is expensive and/or hard to get into the program.