Nursing professor thinks half of the class as cheaters

[cjprenurse]

Hello there,

1st, I'd like to say the syllabus is designed by the teacher and must be approved by the nursing director and the nursing assistant director before the start of class. The total points overall is 735 points.

2. The class had to do an ABG worksheet with nursing interventions. About 15 students received an email that they need to be seen asap in regards to the class. What happened is that about 15 (there is 34 students in the class) were accused of cheating. The professor believes that this "independent assignment" (note, this was not states clearly in the directions) everyone had the same interventions written. As a result, each student that had similar answers were called into her office.

Last monday, all 15 students were harassed, belittled, and yelled at for being accused of cheating. The professor even stated she did not believe students can get a perfect score because this worksheet is "too advanced" for the class to get the answers correct. It got to the point that this professor brought their kids into the discussion (some students are single moms) and shamed them too. It got so bad the director of nursing had to get involved, the nursing assistant director too.

The class points is 735 points, out of all the points, we only get 4% back. She took out the bag worksheet and still put "0" for the students accused of cheating, which is affecting their grade. The nursing director states nobody is being sent to the dean for plagiarism.

I didn't do so good on the exam, but I know the reason why. I have to see this professor to review tomorrow and I am absolutely terrified of her now. There is a lot of sketchy things going on with the nursing administration, even a teacher failed a student on purpose. There was actual documentation that she did and yet, she still is a professor teaching there. Regarding this situation, can she really change all the assignments in her syllabus? Isn't a syllabus a contract between student and teacher?

[llg, PhD, RN]

I don't fully understand your question. Apparently, 15 people did not submit their own work on the ABG worksheet. They either combined their efforts and did it as a group or had a completed worksheet that they copied. It was foolish of them to do that even if the syllabus did not say that it was an "independent assignment." Had it been intended as a group project, it would have been labeled as a group project and a single, group grade given.

If they didn't complete the worksheet as a group, but rather copied the answers from some other source ... then that is plagiarism, which is definitely wrong regardless of what the directions said.

So if your question is whether or not students who appear to have cheated on an assignment be given a score of 0 on the assignment, the answer is "yes". If you cheat, you can expect to be punished, if not thrown out of the program.

As for the instructor failing a student, that is perfectly appropriate if the student had done something terribly wrong or was not meeting the standards of the program. What was the instructor's reason for giving the failing grade? Are you aware of all aspects of the students' performance? How do you know the student didn't deserve to fail?

I don't know what happened with the students' kids. You weren't clear in explaining that.

It sounds like this was an ugly incident -- one in which the instructor "lost her cool" in the face of having students who cheated (knowingly or unknowingly) on the assignment. The administration was involved and approved of the final outcome -- that no one was dismissed from the program, but that their grades took a hit. Perhaps the instructor could have handled it with more grace, but you have to move on. Take care of yourself, study, do your own work and don't look for short-cuts. Pass your courses and become a nurse. Either that or change schools.

[TheDudeWithTheBigDog, ADN, RN]

If the sheet is too advanced to get the answers correct, then why the hell is she assigning it? It's literally an assignment to lower your grade.

Anyway, it's hard to take a side without knowing the exact situation. Someone in their first semester is going to be very different from someone about to graduate from a 4 year BSN program. On one end, you'd expect the same small list of interventions because new students don't know as much yet and are typically limited to only basic interventions, while on the other, it would depend on the scenario, sometimes there's only a few right answers, sometimes there's way more.

It sounds like this is a bad teacher.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Anyway, it's hard to take a side without knowing the exact situation.

Exactly. And it sounds to me like some of the OP's information is simply hearsay, so again, hard to know exactly what happened.

[That_Gal_Jes]

I was in a very similar situation, here's my story. I was a straight A student without studying the first semester. The second semester, they found out I had an abnormal EEG (s/p three brain surgeries) and put me on medication, which made me blackout when I had seizure like activities, I took a test and this happened and they said since I hadn't told them about the medication, the bad grade was on me, even though I had no idea until that day that I would be affected this way. I immediately stopped the medication, and asked if I could retest, even the harder test at the end of the semester, they said no. I also questioned some of the material that I knew to be wrong, as I have worked in the medical field for years, and it was blatantly wrong - they didn't even check in to it. I was gliding by with high Bs in spite of the exam, until about 2 weeks before the end of the semester. Then one day two of my professors told me I hadn't turned in several assignments that I knew I had turned in. I even had confirmation for one of them. I got really upset and went to talk to my "mentor". The last week of school I was informed that I was failing 2/4 classes (from high B to below a 78 in less than a week.) Then they did my clinical review (this instructor had literally only be on-site for 3 weeks of the 16 week semester) and they said that my clinical paperwork was sub-par, after not saying anything all semester, but the kicker was that they changed my clinical grade and made me fail by ONE point, from an A. They said my patient was bleeding and I didn't tend to it, but my patient the last day of clinical was gone a lot of the time I was there, and I checked on her every 45 minutes, plus I had report with my nurse preceptor who hadn't mentioned anything either. I made my mind up that the school I was at was not a good fit; I didn't trust the information I was learning, and I didn't trust them to prepare me for being a nurse. Ultimately, I needed to feel confident in the education I was receiving. They failed 37/60 students that semester. Most of them had also questioned the wrong information, or shown that they were too knowledgeable. You have to make the decision that's right for you, whether its leaving or speaking up or just toughing it through; the first step is communicating with your professors.