Integrity in this environment is a tough thing to have. I remember one of my first posts of nursing school being about this very issue. Well here I am again, and I am really trying to figure out what the hell is going on. This place is like corporate America, people do whatever it is they feel they have to do in order to get the job done - even if it isn't right. So, same scenario as the first time, we had an online exam, but this time it was open note and open book. That's great, but the questions were tricky - everyone agrees on this point. My grade? 68. (FAILING) Class average? 90. (HIGH PASS) Now, I'm routinely a little bit below average - like 5-10 points give or take, but failing when everyone else almost hit the honor's range?!? Never. So, of course, I ask around town what the hell is going on. What happened? How did you know that answer? I couldn't find it anywhere, etc. (We were allowed 2 hours to take the exam - I answered the last question with like 1 minute remaining - I could NOT find the answers!) Here's what happened:
1) They made it a "group exam," meaning they all got out their laptops and took the exam together, dividing the questions among themselves, and figuring out the discrepancies as a group - which we were specifically told NOT to do - in fact, we were also required to take the exam in the school lab (which is under video surveillance). Some of the advantages of this are obvious, but one advantage that I think might not be so obvious is that because you have all those people, you can do a more thorough search of the internet - which is what you had to do to figure out some of the correct answers because his notes were not clear on some topics...so people had to read articles they found on Pub Med, etc. to find the answers, which is doable when you have four people helping you look for the answer, but not when you are taking the exam alone!
2) They used last year's midterm, which had the correct answers for 75% of the questions. A midterm we obviously weren't supposed to have access to - even considering it was open note, open book.
Here I am again, pondering the question of personal integrity versus survival in nursing school. What good is personal integrity if I do not pass the class and therefore do not finish the program? Can one be a person of integrity in an environment where integrity does not exist? Or is this like the "it is dangerous to be sincere with insincere people" thing? Is the cost to the individual worth it? Am I willing to take a chance on failing Nutrition in order to maintain my basic level of integrity? I have worked really hard not to let this place, this experience, turn me into someone I am not, someone I (and those who look up to me) will not be able to recognize. Repeatedly people defend themselves by saying, "it's just the way the game is played." I don't buy that. There has to be some level of self-responsibility. Pass at what cost? But I also understand this: do NOT pass, at what cost? There is a real opportunity to pass this class without using the final exam that is floating around campus...but there is also a real possibility of failing it by one question - which I just experienced. Where is the conversation that should be happening among the other folks who failed this exam because they did not cheat (there are at least 5 others who I know of) No one is going to tell, because we are not the moral police, right? But where does that leave us? Failing. And I find it so ironic that this is all happening in an environment where we all sign an "honor code."
Hmpf, honor code my ass.
4 comments:
It truly sucks when you are doing what's right and people around you are not.
Some of your classmates figured since it was an open test everything was fair game (especially when they saw how hard it was)
I have mixed feeling about the use previous year midterm because if my friend in the class ahead of me gave me her notes including exams.Should I turn that down b/c it may give me info that other students may not be privy to?
Trust that that goes on ALL the time...honor code or not...
But the responsibility to pass the class relies soley on you, regardless of what other people are doing. If more people had failed the exam or received low grades how would that affect the outcome? would the instructor curve the grades? offer extra credit?
Now what if you speak out about the "cheating" is the professor likely to take your word? what reprocussions would you face (if any) from your classmates?
It seems sometimes, in nursing school, that despite your BEST efforts to improve there is no movement and you're back at square one. But you will get through this
I was frustrated when I read about the cheating going on and how unfair it all is and how I may very likely end up in a similar situation myself...And a few quotes popped into my mind from a great book I read in college, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky: "Have faith to the end, even if it should happen that all on earth are corrupted and you alone remain faithful..."
"And even if you do shine, but see that people are not saved even with your light, remain steadfast and do not doubt the power of the heavenly light; believe that if they are not saved now, they will be saved later...for your light will not die even when you are dead. The righteous man departs, but his light remains."
Good for you for doing what you know is right... Continue, even though it may be difficult and you will be blessed!
i had a long comment typed out about some sketchy shit on the first quiz of the semester - I can't begin to imagine how it would feel to know that folks had pulled this routine on an exam! I'm the one that won't even let folks look at the notecards I make (when I actually make them) because it's a lot of work (and I don't always invest that time even for myself!).
The question you wrestled with last fall is me today and for the last two weeks. I really pray that each semester, the initial shock will lessen in severity and duration. My solution for the last two weeks has been to come home and cry, and then open the med-surg book and read for tomorrow's lecture.
off to write about integrity on the unit where I'm working this semester.
open book, in nursing school? i wish we had open book. i go to charity nursing school new orleans this is my senior year...the teachers..holy crap!!!!do not give a rats ass about the students the lectures suck..half ass, thrown together junk...they do not even know about the subject their teaching on..the last two tests class..76.25% that's out of 170 students..that's not student fault that bad teaching..this is the worst group of teachers i have ever seen..good luck to all of us we need it with teachers who dont care about TEACHING!!!!
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