What to do when U know others are cheating...(in classes)

Nurses General Nursing

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  1. Would you tell if you knew someone was cheating in your nursing program classes?

    • 24
      Yes
    • 7
      No

31 members have participated

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I only knew of one time when students were cheating on their tests. It was when we had the drug calculation test that we had to score 100% on or flunk out. We had two or three that made it quite obvious. Honestly, I did not tell on them, but either someone else did or the instructor caught it herself. When we came back into the classroom after everyone handed in their papers, the teacher called them on it in front of everyone. According to school policy they should have been dropped, but they were not.

It makes you mad to see someone cheat and breeze right through while you are working so hard to make it honestly. I can't say whether I'd tell or not, but I agree that I wouldn't want them to know I told.

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I would also like to add that I am amazed your instructor recycles tests like that. It looks like cheating would be expected to occur if you gave the exact same test yearly.

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This type of student(the cheater) steams me!!! I turned a student in during our seacond or third semester due to cheating. She had a "learning disability" and had to take exams in a special room(by herself), had long time to do it. She cheated by calling a classmate of mine on the cell phone and asking for answers. I was there when she asked this classmate. Also, she told the classmate that she used her book when no one was around during tests. So I had it(I knew she was apoor student b/c she failed 1st semester 2 times and 2nd once before. I went to our instructor and told her what I had heard, and she took it from there. They made this student take the next exams with the class and she flunked out quickly.

My beef is that if a person cheats in school, do I want her/him caring for MY loved ones? This type of student could accidently pass the NCLEX and then go kill someone!

So you know what to do hon.

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Specializes in Gerontological Nursing, Acute Rehab.
I know of 4 people in my A&PII class that are cheating and it makes me so mad! :angryfire I am working my tail off getting the grades I do and they are getting answers from earlier classes for the exams. I know bc one of the people said it out loud like she was proud of it. I knwo she can't be lying bc the other day we handed in an exam we took home for the digestive system and within an hour I was talking to this person about another student who was absent. She asked why this other student was absent and i TOLD HER TAHT THIS OTHER STUDENTS GALLBLADDER (oops caps lock was on) had gallstones. She looked at me and asked "What is a gall bladder?" She then asked whta a gallbladded does!! wow! obviously she is not learing anything.

Anyway, is it an obligation of mine to blow the whistle or should I keep my mouth shut. I would do it without my name mentioned. this girl admitted it in front of about 6 people. she would never knwo who told. I just don't want to be involved if thses people get caught and it is found out taht I knew and did not say anything I want no part of any of this. I knwo in the end they will fail thier NCELX exams but I need to knwo what I should do.

Way back when I was in nursing school, we also had a student that cheated. He was a straight A student, always got excellent grades in everything....but he admitted to me he cheated (at least during A&P) and his mother was a nurse so she did all the care plans and stuff that we had to hand in. He did pass the boards and worked as a nurse, but he had a drug problem and later died of an overdose. Sad story.

Instructors aren't as clueless as they seem. I'm sure that they know some of what's going on. Most of the students that are seriously cheating won't make it thru the program, others will. As for what you should do, I don't really know if reporting it will really do anything. I think that the instructors had to actually catch the students in the act of cheating in order to do anything. You might just want to give the instructors a heads up, maybe they'll change the way the give exams and not "recycle" them, and keep a close eye on the "cheaters". After that, I would just let things take their course. These people will eventually be weeded out, and if they make it to the workplace, they will have to deal with the real world of nursing. While I don't condone cheating in any way, nursing school is not the be all and end all. A great majority of your learning to be a nurse is done on the job.

Don't let this bother you too much. I know it's frustrating when you're working your butt off and others are slacking....believe me, it's highly improbable that they'll make it thru the nursing program.....esp if they can't handle A&P.

Concentrate on yourself, try to distance yourself from those people, and do your best to get thru nursing school. When you get out in the "real world", you will continue to see people that cheat the system, cheat the administration, and cheat the people that they work with. It's just a part of life. Do things the way YOU think is best, and ignore the rest, unless they are jeopordizing patient care.

Good luck........keep on working hard! You can do it!

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Oh the tests are not a year apart. The prof gives a test to her day class and the girl in the day class then tells the 3 others in my night class what was on the exam. The exams for the day and night students are the same and the prof does collect the exams from us after we see out grades.

Still it seems like it would be easy to get the information so you can cheat. Maybe I say that because I was accustomed to getting a completely different test. Different classes got different tests and you could bet that the students sitting near you had a different version of the test than the one you had.

Are you saying the students are cheating because they memorize the information about what was on the test, or do you mean that they are using something like "cheat sheets" or writing info down to look at during the test?

I believe they do have to be caught in the act. Perhaps that is why the students I went to school with were not dropped. It would be hard to justify disciplining the students without catching them and if they are passing by memorizing the answers then there really isn't much proof. If they were to get caught using written notes or such then I think they'd be in deep trouble.

It seems like this could go in any direction so I understand why you would feel unsure about how to proceed. Good luck to you whatever you choose and hopefully your future experiences with school will be better.

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

I tattle. I don't care if i do make enemies doing that. Very disturbing with someone cheats on the drug calculation tests, considering that these people are supposedly going to give meds if they are not caught. Therefore, that's my part in keeping them from getting anywhere near a medcart. :)

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Unless there is a sure way for them to know that YOU told, I would go ahead and do it. I would also make it very clear to your instructors that you aren't looking to get anything out of it..just that it bothers you because you work so hard. Or, you could turn them in anonymously.

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I'd turn them in. At my school, you can actually get into more trouble if they find out you know somebody is cheating and don't turn them in.

My school just had to redesign the testing lab because of cheating. Some people were sneaking in notes and such. Even though most of these people flunked anyway, the school didn't approve. So they redesigned the layout so the testing computers sit right in front of the lab administrator.

As far as what happened to the people who were caught. They were thrown out of school. Right away. Gone.

:smokin:

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