Hi, all. I'm an LPN student and I need some advice on a moral/ethical issue about one of my classmates.
Some background info: My class is mostly not-your-average students - most of us are in our mid-to-late twenties and early thirties, but quite a few are in their 40's and 50's. We all get a long pretty well - which is a miracle, a whole bunch of women shoved together (there's only one man in our class). Most of us are pretty tight nit and no one goes running to our instructor over little minuscule issues - such as so-and-so's tattoo is showing or so-and-so didn't do that, blah, blah, blah. But I've recently come into some information that is a HUGE issue.
A woman in my class recently told me that she hasn't written a single paper - a woman she works with writes the papers for her. This woman asks my classmate to take her shifts and in exchange for working these shifts, the woman writes the papers for my classmate.
I really like my classmate - but this really, really IRRITATES me. I have been working my butt off - trying to do clinicals, care plans, study for tests, write papers - well, all of you know the workload nursing students deal with. Not only that, but I have a 3 yr old at home and a husband who works sometimes as much as 70 hours a week, give or take. My classmate, on the other hand, has several children but they're all grown (the youngest is 17) and her husband is disabled and receives disability - he stays home all day, does ALL the cleaning and cooking, manages the entire household so that his wife can focus on school. I know it's wrong, but I wouldn't be so irritated if this classmate of mine was a single mom with several kids to raise on her own or something - at least then I could empathize. What makes me even more irritated is that this woman has all this help from her husband, someone else writes her papers for her, and she supposedly has tons of time to study - and she's barely passing!
Anyway, enough of my rambling - what should I do? Should I talk to my instructor face-to-face? Should I leave an anonymous note? Should I send her an email? Should I not tell her at all? Guys, I really don't know what to do. I live in a small town, I have to deal with these women for another 4-5 months and I don't want them to find out and think of me as a snitch - but I really don't think it's fair for someone to be skating by like this when all the rest of us are working our butts off, earning the good grades we receive, and she's having someone else do half the work for her!
Please reply as soon as you can. Thanks for your advice!
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.
Even if you use your eyes to physically see someone in the act of cheating you still have nothing more than your word to rely on. Unless you video taped an act that was very clearly cheating you still have no evidence.
I was merely suggested that there were several very narrow, literal interpretations of school's honour codes in regard to cheating. My point was simply that if you bear witness to cheating, and this does not have to be using your eyes to see it occurring, then you have a duty to uphold your school's honour code.
If I saw someone cheating at least I would have some ground to stand on. It might still not be able to be proven, but at least I know what I saw and would report it. Going off the OP scenario this is how I see it being presented,
"Mr/Mrs. Instructor, I felt it was my moral obligation to report Student A for cheating. I overheard her saying she has someone else writing her papers, now if she was struggling just the same as me I wouldn't report her and I could justify her doing it. BUT that isn't the case, her husband is disabled and cooks and cleans and takes care of her kids so she has no reason not to write her own papers and it just isn't fair. Therefor I felt it was my moral obligation to let you know I heard her bragging about someone else doing her paper."
yea, something just isn't sounding right to me here
Like I said, in this particular scenario with the info I have been presented with. I wouldn't do anything with it. I find it all very shady. If I saw the handoff and felt it was wrong NO MATTER THE REASON, than that would be a different story.
Her laziness WILL come back to bite her. Either she won't make it through the class or boards due to poor exam grades. She can't have her friend take the Boards for her. If she can't even write a paper on her own, my feeling is that she won't make it through the program.
The real problem isn't her. Please don't take this the wrong way but your problem is your feelings about her: you sound jealous. Instead of worrying about what she has and you don't, can you use the energy to find out why YOU feel you're lacking so much? Can you talk to those around you to get more support at home? Can you approach a classmate to get some help in the schoolwork? Do you feel you need a tutor or other help? (I am not trying to criticize - just trying to help you examine why you're having these 'unfair' feelings & comparing yourself to classmates)
Her laziness WILL come back to bite her. Either she won't make it through the class or boards due to poor exam grades. She can't have her friend take the Boards for her. If she can't even write a paper on her own, my feeling is that she won't make it through the program.
The real problem isn't her. Please don't take this the wrong way but your problem is your feelings about her: you sound jealous. Instead of worrying about what she has and you don't, can you use the energy to find out why YOU feel you're lacking so much? Can you talk to those around you to get more support at home? Can you approach a classmate to get some help in the schoolwork? Do you feel you need a tutor or other help? (I am not trying to criticize - just trying to help you examine why you're having these 'unfair' feelings & comparing yourself to classmates)
this is true. life isn't fair - someone is always going to have more, have things easier, etc.
i can speak from experience after being in a similar situation and if anything, it made me feel better about myself that with all the responsibilities i had, i was able to excel when others who were "better off" couldn't. i was able to be PROUD when i got good grades and when i graduated - that's something this "cheater" can't say.
There is quite a bit of cheating that goes on in our program in regards to out of class assignments. Some of our best students I have witnessed, with my own eyes, work together (which is technically cheating) on things such as take-home exams, care plan scenarios, etc. They aren't incompetent nursing students - they know what they are doing in clinicals and they study and they make good grades on the exams - but they ARE cheating.
What good would it do to report them? It would be my word against theirs. As someone who makes decent but not outstanding grades, I doubt that I would be able to go toe to toe with one of these students. It would be almost fruitless to call out these "all-star" nursing students who are helping to keep up the average GPA, HESI scores, and NCLEX pass rates of my college.
It doesn't mean I am without ethics. I am simply realistic about the fact that it would cause turmoil within the college that I am a part of, and make MY life harder for no results. Even if I report it, the best that would come out of it is that I've ruined some students' lives, most of them who will go on to become great nurses despite the fact that they didn't take research class seriously.
Let's be honest - are all of those APA papers on the health care delivery system and petty assignments the measure of your worth as a nurse? Probably not. I would, however, be more inclined to speak with her and ask her if she thinks it's fair for someone else to be doing her homework, and if so, what she believes the professors would think of it. You don't have to actually report someone to freak them out about the possibility!
I don't worry about anyone's ethics but my own until it's affecting other people (read: my patients). In this specific case, the inclination of "I should report" that OP has about the situation are fueled by feelings of jealousy and unfairness, not because she believes the OP not writing her own papers affects her abilities to be a good nurse.
Ethical dilemmas are not black and white, otherwise they wouldn't be called ethical dilemmas. Those who would automatically report anything to the supervisor at the drop of a hat without giving the person in question any notice, conversation, or benefit of the doubt - here's to hoping we never work at the same facility! People like you are the problem with nursing.
What does your school's honor code/code of conduct require of you?
Mine says that if I know someone is cheating and don't report it, then I'm guilty of cheating as well.
We're all adults, there's no such thing as "squealing." That concept was left on the playground. Academic dishonesty is an academic crime. Do you want to be an accomplice?
We always have the choice between doing the right thing, or doing the easy thing.
There is quite a bit of cheating that goes on in our program in regards to out of class assignments. Some of our best students I have witnessed, with my own eyes, work together (which is technically cheating) on things such as take-home exams, care plan scenarios, etc. They aren't incompetent nursing students - they know what they are doing in clinicals and they study and they make good grades on the exams - but they ARE cheating.
What good would it do to report them? It would be my word against theirs. As someone who makes decent but not outstanding grades, I doubt that I would be able to go toe to toe with one of these students. It would be almost fruitless to call out these "all-star" nursing students who are helping to keep up the average GPA, HESI scores, and NCLEX pass rates of my college.
It doesn't mean I am without ethics. I am simply realistic about the fact that it would cause turmoil within the college that I am a part of, and make MY life harder for no results. Even if I report it, the best that would come out of it is that I've ruined some students' lives, most of them who will go on to become great nurses despite the fact that they didn't take research class seriously.
Ethical dilemmas are not black and white, otherwise they wouldn't be called ethical dilemmas. Those who would automatically report anything to the supervisor at the drop of a hat without giving the person in question any notice, conversation, or benefit of the doubt - here's to hoping we never work at the same facility! People like you are the problem with nursing.
The result isn't punishment for the student involved....you have no say about that, it can not be a "result" of your action. The result of reporting cheating is that you did the right thing. The rest is up to the school and frankly (short of the student's expulsion, as that would be obvious), you shouldn't know anything about it. It's between that student and the faculty. For me anyway, the result of doing the right thing is that I can look myself in the eye in the mirror.
I agree, ethical dilemmas are not black and white. A student confessing to me that she cheated is not a dilemma, is not gossip and is not vague. It should be reported.
To follow your work analogy, if a nurse confessed to me that she was stealing narcotics....yes, I would automatically report to the supervisor. I'm sorry you feel that makes me an unwanted co-worker. How much should I be concerned about a co-worker who involves me in an immoral act by divulging it to me? Any consequences that come from their actions are not because I reported them, they are due to their actions.
I remember when I was in school a fellow nursing student felt the need to tell me that she was cheating off of another student. I told her that I didn't want to hear about it again. She told me again so I went to the instructor and let her know what was being told to me. I wasn't there to be popular and I warned her that it made me uncomfortable. She was kicked out of the program a few weeks later. This student should not be placing you in this situation.
The result isn't punishment for the student involved....you have no say about that, it can not be a "result" of your action. The result of reporting cheating is that you did the right thing. The rest is up to the school and frankly (short of the student's expulsion, as that would be obvious), you shouldn't know anything about it. It's between that student and the faculty. For me anyway, the result of doing the right thing is that I can look myself in the eye in the mirror.
I agree, ethical dilemmas are not black and white. A student confessing to me that she cheated is not a dilemma, is not gossip and is not vague. It should be reported.
To follow your work analogy, if a nurse confessed to me that she was stealing narcotics....yes, I would automatically report to the supervisor. I'm sorry you feel that makes me an unwanted co-worker. How much should I be concerned about a co-worker who involves me in an immoral act by divulging it to me? Any consequences that come from their actions are not because I reported them, they are due to their actions.
I have no problem looking at myself in the mirror. I do the right things for me within my own ethical boundaries. I can't control other people, nor do I wish to be a negative force in their life if they are not affecting mine or others in a negative way. I ask again - how is her not doing this paper really hurting anybody? In my case, it's the equivalent of telling on a co-worker for getting on Facebook at work in her downtime, especially without speaking to them first. It's against the rules but it's not really that big of a deal.
If they told you they were stealing narcs for work, they were likely crying out for help. I doubt the majority of people tell someone about their drug abuse without looking for empathy, understanding, and aid. If you took that information and immediately went to a supervisor without first counseling them to some extent on their options, which imo is being a HUMAN, then yes, I am happy to not have you as a co-worker. I would not want someone that cold to be caring for my family members who have a history of abuse either. We seek to punish rather than to rehabilitate far too often, and it makes the soft person inside of me just crumble because it doesn't help these people out.
But comparing narc stealing and having someone else write your throwaway APA paper is the problem in the first place. I already said I would report someone if they were putting a patient in harm's way. However, the way I would handle the situation is vastly different from your own, I'm sure.
As I said earlier in the thread, moral relativity abounds....
You keep saying this like it makes sense with your other arguments.
1. Ethics and morality are two entirely different beasts. Your morals can co-exist with your ethics but not necessarily. My lack of belief in god has no bearing on my helping a patient to get pastoral care, for example.
2. Relativism is usually not used as a defense for obviously ethically wrong actions, but extended as an understanding that different cultures have different practices. Coining marks on an Asian patient are not considered signs of abuse, for example.
I didn't happen to encounter a single post here that stated that the cheating described in the OP is morally correct, but feel free to correct me if I am wrong and explain why you keep indirectly stating it. Choosing not to report a student with lack of evidence over an issue not directly related to patient care hardly speaks to condoning the behavior.
I'm an ENFP though, so don't expect me to understand a world that doesn't exist in shades of gray.
The result isn't punishment for the student involved....you have no say about that, it can not be a "result" of your action. The result of reporting cheating is that you did the right thing. The rest is up to the school and frankly (short of the student's expulsion, as that would be obvious), you shouldn't know anything about it. It's between that student and the faculty. For me anyway, the result of doing the right thing is that I can look myself in the eye in the mirror.
I agree, ethical dilemmas are not black and white. A student confessing to me that she cheated is not a dilemma, is not gossip and is not vague. It should be reported.
To follow your work analogy, if a nurse confessed to me that she was stealing narcotics....yes, I would automatically report to the supervisor. I'm sorry you feel that makes me an unwanted co-worker. How much should I be concerned about a co-worker who involves me in an immoral act by divulging it to me? Any consequences that come from their actions are not because I reported them, they are due to their actions.
Suppose someone wanted to push your buttons because they think you have a big mouth..and let's say they push your buttons by admitting something that they know would just kill you inside with anger. Well suppose what they told you is 100% untrue. Suppose they tell you that they cheated in this way or that, but it's untrue? How dumb would you look in the eyes of others and the faculty? Which is why unless you have PROOF(which there has been NONE in this entire thread), it really isn't in your best interest to run your mouth about something. If someone confessed to a crime, but it isn't caught on tape and there's no proof...well it's just a waste of money in court because they are let go.
~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN
5,259 Posts
If I saw someone cheating at least I would have some ground to stand on. It might still not be able to be proven, but at least I know what I saw and would report it. Going off the OP scenario this is how I see it being presented,
"Mr/Mrs. Instructor, I felt it was my moral obligation to report Student A for cheating. I overheard her saying she has someone else writing her papers, now if she was struggling just the same as me I wouldn't report her and I could justify her doing it. BUT that isn't the case, her husband is disabled and cooks and cleans and takes care of her kids so she has no reason not to write her own papers and it just isn't fair. Therefor I felt it was my moral obligation to let you know I heard her bragging about someone else doing her paper."
yea, something just isn't sounding right to me here
Like I said, in this particular scenario with the info I have been presented with. I wouldn't do anything with it. I find it all very shady. If I saw the handoff and felt it was wrong NO MATTER THE REASON, than that would be a different story.