I need guidance, I saw one of my classmates cheating on our mid-term pharm test. We self grade so she changed about 12 answers to get a passing grade. NOT only did I see her but in the hall after grading she told me she had to change them just to barely pass. I got an 83% and passing is 78% so sure I wanted a better grade to but would never have changed my answers.
Ethicly I think I know what to do, I just don't want to be a tattle tail and she knows I know so there is my catch 22 .
I know how you feel because I saw someone cheat from a paper,But I never said anything because I did not want her get into trouble. But please don't tell on your classmate. What is done is done! Nursing is too hard to get into and then stay and graduate, so please do not mess this one. Plus pretty soon it will soon catch up with her, you can NOT get your way in nursing. That's exactly what happenend to the girl I witnessed, she did not graduate with me. So let nature take its couse. Don not be sore because you feel you deserve more than her. You got what you got on your own , be proud and do better next time. Just let it go.
I'm going to sound horribly judgemental, but any loser who has to cheat in school deserves any punishment they get. Those of us who worked hard to get where we are shouldn't have our reputations sullied by those who aren't interested in being a good nurse. I worry about what actions "will catch up with her." If some posters are comfortable having their loved ones' lives placed in the hands a bad nurse, I guess that's their decision. I only want the best for my family and that's what I intend to give to my future patients. Someone who is willing to cheat and do whatever it takes to just get by has no place in this profession.
Why is this a question? Obviously your teacher trusts her students way too much, but don't our patients give us incredible trust too? She had to cheat on a Pharm test. Do you want this person dosing your mother? If the answer is no, then what makes you think that anyone would want this girl dosing THEIR mothers, children, husbands, ect.
This girl needs to be kicked out of school before she does physical harm to someone. She has already left damage in her wake, I think. I know I would feel violated as one of her classmates. She violated all the hard work you did by bypassing the blood sweat and tears put into a studying session. You deserve the grade you got because you worked your bum off. These are not easy classes. She violated her instructor's trust. That is quite obvious how your instructor would feel if this was revealed to her. I think it is great that your instructor trusts you that much.
The real question is not if she is going to cheat again, but when. Who is she going to violate next? Will she withhold and steal pain meds from a patient to self inject and give her patient saline in place? Don't think that that does not happen. Don't think that people who are ok doing that type of awful thing did not start somewhere. Don't think that all the people they work with are ignorant of their bad acts. By remaining silent you are enabling this girl to stay in school, perhaps earn her degree and thus exposing patients to her compromised set of values.
As nurses we deal with ethical issues often. Who do you want to be? Do you want to have uncompromising ethical standards? Believe me when I say that the type of student you are now will be the type of nurse you are later. You know what the right thing is. In the end you will earn the respect of your instructor (don't think for a moment she will not know how hard it is to "tattle" on a peer), but you will preserve your own self-respect. God bless you for being honest, even when the opportunity for dishonesty presents itself. Prove that ethics is not just an abstract idea in our profession. Good luck in school :)
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Of course, every school has that policy. But policy is just policy, you have your own brain, open mind as a human being, own judgment, feelings. So everything should depend on circumstances. Think about this, if your family member stole something/killed someone would you turn them in?
Think about it this way, if your family member or loved one was killed, or something dear to you was stolen from YOU would you hope that someone would turn in the murderer or thief.
I would NOT cover up a murder for a family member.
It's funny, in your other post you mentioned how only God can judge blah blah blah and in this post your talking about allowing family members to steal and murder without turning them in blah blah blah.
I had a boyfriend and their family had the same kind of mindset. The father was molesting his daughters. I found out about it and the family said "only god can judge" the father will face judgment in the end, it's not our business, we don't turn in our family etc etc. I called BS on that one and called the police myself and that father was put in prison. Did my boy friends family hate me? ABSOLUTELY, ask me if I cared, I spared another sister from being molested. I protected another girl from growing up with the emotional scars of molestation and rape. It was at the expense of my sons grandfather. I don't give a crap. Wrong is wrong.
If I suspect a child is being abused I step in. Some things are everyone's business.
I need guidance, I saw one of my classmates cheating on our mid-term pharm test. We self grade so she changed about 12 answers to get a passing grade. NOT only did I see her but in the hall after grading she told me she had to change them just to barely pass. I got an 83% and passing is 78% so sure I wanted a better grade to but would never have changed my answers.
Ethicly I think I know what to do, I just don't want to be a tattle tail and she knows I know so there is my catch 22 .
I guess what I'm asking is what would you do?
Girl, you need to find another school and FAST! What is up with the self grade? When we take tests, we have to put everything in the front of the room, nothing on our desk, no hats, jackets, or anything in our pockets. Our tests are also scantron. When we get our tests back to look at, we have to go through the whole books up front...etc. Once someone a couple of years ago got caught cheating, they held back the entire class.
When I was a nursing student, I was faced with a similar incident so I understand the conflict you are feeling. I chose to discuss it with the student and let her know that I knew she cheated and that I understood her reasons, but not her choice. I told her I knew she would do the right thing, and I offered to to go with her to speak to the instructor - not to admit that she had cheated (as that was her responsibility to do the right thing), but to ask for extra help so that she didn't need to cheat in the future. What you have to keep in mind is that she is not doing herself any favors by not knowing the information and cheating - the boards are hard. By seeking the extra help she needs she will have the confidence and knowledge that she needs to be a nurse. As a nurse, you will be faced with ethical questions many times and sometimes we have to take a chance that someone won't like us for doing the right thing.
Seriously? There should be no question as to what you should do....REPORT HER!!!! Cheating is wrong...and in my opinion even more wrong when it comes to nursing school. We all work hard to get accepted into the programs and if this person has to cheat just to pass a test than that means she will cheat at other things too. Do you really think she would be safe in giving medications to patients if she has to cheat to pass a pharm test????
It doesn't matter if this person would know it was you who turned her in or not. If she doesn't learn the material now then she could seriously hurt or kill someone when she doesn't know correct dosages!
I concur with the advice of turning her in, and I'm a little alarmed at all the responses on here not to. Cheating is bad anyhow, but in Nursing school it's really bad as it affects the safety of patients down the road.
That test is over. That cheater is gone. The time to report it was at the time of the cheating. Now it's just her word versus her word. The cheater will never pass the Boards if she has to cheat to that degree in nursing school.
The concerned student needs to report the incident not the person to the authorities so they can fix the security deficit.There will always be cheaters! Enough said:deadhorse
Let the person cheat - if they are that silly (could use a worse word) then when they kill someone they will work it out. They obviously don't realise that the task of administering drugs requires a high level of competence.
I am a big fan of "working it out" before you kill someone.
I am a big fan of correcting the offence when it happens. Too much time has passed for this incident, but now you know what you can do for the next time you see it. I do what makes me able to sleep at night. I had a similar situation in one of my classes (not a nursing class it was A&P); I went to the instructor told him that I was not going to tell him which students were cheating on the tests, but told him how they were cheating. By doing this, I put the ball in his court to either change the way the testing was conducted, or have other instructors proctor the tests with him (more eyes). I had to work too hard to try to pass my classes on my own and work a full-time job. Well, the students that were cheating in that class are now no longer part of my nursing classes. Karma did come back to get them because as you all know, your nursing classes build on the prerequisites.
Now, I work as a tech in my local hospital while in my final classes in school. I had a nurse that would sleep at the nurse’s station when she worked nights. I’m not talking about go into an empty room to take a 20-30 minute power nap. I am talking full-on snoring, sleeping for a couple of hour’s kind of nap. I wasn’t going to say anything at first because here I am a lowly tech on the floor, but when something was said about it and she gave attitude and tried to bully and threaten me….let’s just say she picked the wrong person to try to push around. I did turn her in. Not only did I turn her in, I told all my other coworkers that if I caught them doing the same thing I would turn them in to and I would hope they would do the same to me. I treat people like I want my family treated. I sure don’t want their nurse sleeping when they are supposed to be making rounds checking on them or monitoring their tele. I did receive some cold shoulders from some of the nurses after that, but I don’t care. That is their problem and I wonder what happened to make them think that behavior was acceptable? I was recently asked if I would take that course of action again, my answer without hesitations was….Hell, Yes!
We thought ours were too. The teacher caught her cheating, about 15 students caught her. She should have been kicked out of the program and out of the university for what she did, and nothing happened. Nice precedence they set.
I even had someone in my class take credit for a project that I did, told the instructor all about it in our peer evals and the person still got a 100 on that project. I asked why nothing was ever done about it and she said she cant take hear say for it. Its like then what is the point of doing peer evals?
Im just in a very bad mood today. My clinical instructor is killing me right now by penalizing me for asking questions and having an opinion. I love school
That's why going the anonymous route here that others have suggested is probably the best. It's your word against hers. How are you going to actually prove any of it? And if you go public with it, you will be tagged as a troublemaker or worse. But I would mention it to someone in authority. If they decide to do nothing about it, then there really is nothing more you can do - but you will know that at least you've done your part.
Another thing to watch out for (I learned this in my pre-nursing classes) is to watch so that someone else isn't spying on your stuff and trying to copy off of you. You may end up getting into trouble and getting drawn into something that is strictly speaking not really of your doing. I had classes where we had a lot of students in pretty close quarters and what I would do is deliberately sit in places where I could not be watched by other students as to what I was writing, and also where I could not be accused of looking at someone elses stuff. Sometimes you have to do that in some classes. Accusation by innuendo can be damaging in some ways too so it's best to be proactive about these things and not let the opportunity arise in the first place. To the OP: you pretty much have to say something to someone because this other student was caught red-handed by you, but there's a smart way of going about it - you don't want to compromise your nursing education in the process - the anonymous note and/or e-mail thing is probably the best way to handle it IMO.
. 
.thumb.jpg.5aa4d55557c0228e31b94de19666bbbb.jpg){kind=small}
What is up with the self grade? When we take tests, we have to put everything in the front of the room, nothing on our desk, no hats, jackets, or anything in our pockets. Our tests are also scantron. When we get our tests back to look at, we have to go through the whole books up front...etc. Once someone a couple of years ago got caught cheating, they held back the entire class.
Aurora77
861 Posts
I'm going to sound horribly judgemental, but any loser who has to cheat in school deserves any punishment they get. Those of us who worked hard to get where we are shouldn't have our reputations sullied by those who aren't interested in being a good nurse. I worry about what actions "will catch up with her." If some posters are comfortable having their loved ones' lives placed in the hands a bad nurse, I guess that's their decision. I only want the best for my family and that's what I intend to give to my future patients. Someone who is willing to cheat and do whatever it takes to just get by has no place in this profession.