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of course, i should be studying right now, as i have an exam tomorrow. but i have been griping to everyone i know, and they are sick of this conversation, so now you get it!
last week we had to give presentations in one of our classes. our topics were already chosen for us, we just had to put them together. (our group did a skit! about racism....) part of the group's grade depended on the class asking at least 2 questions.
some of the topics were cultural competency (racism is culturally incompetent), medical errors, and fidelity.
the fidelity group presented under the theme "if you cheat on a test in college you are less likely to report a medical error while working as a nurse," which kind of made my eyes pop a little. at the end of their presentation, only one person asked a question. so because i was a "little" irritated by their presentation, but i still wanted to help them out for their grade, i just asked a question.
and i said: "can anyone here HONESTLY say they have never cheated on an exam? i have never even played a game of solitaire with the cards without cheating. does that mean i have less fidelity than someone who has "never" cheated on anything?"
and then i felt the eyes of 82 students and 3 professors (who i later found out were nodding and pointing at themselves when i asked my question). and i wanted to sink into the floor.
this is the answer i got: "if i'm in the hospital, i don't want to be treated by someone who cheated their way to being a nurse, because obviously they don't know what they're doing."
because patient care is severely affected by wyoming government.
it just made me so angry because they just sat in front of the class preaching fidelity, but they couldn't even own up to the fact that they cheated on a government exam freshman year (that was me), or bumped a car while parallel parking and didn't report it (that was also me), or kept the miscounted change in the amount of an extra dollar (that was probably also me).
we all cheat. maybe not always, and maybe about more or less serious matters. maybe simply in our own heads. i don't know if i even know a single person who has not cheated at some point or another.
maybe there are a few out there who are genuinely moral people, maybe i know a few and i didn't even realize. but if cheating on a government exam is an indication of being a horrible nurse who will not own up to her mistakes, then no one should be allowed to be a nurse.
i think we're all doing the best we can. yes, some people are subconsciously more ok with cheating than others - intentionally copying the person's answers next to them on an exam, versus someone (me) who realized that their notes were sitting beside them, and answered a question with those notes without even needing to; a giant hit and run versus a bump that left no scratches (i checked) and so didn't really warrant reporting; stealing a wallet versus keeping a dollar of accidental change. but i believe that most people know when to draw the cheating line. or their guilty conscience does.
anyways. i'm now the girl with the "i steal meds and won't report my iv mistakes" card on my forehead!
probably only in my own head, because my little argument has been festering in my brain.
on a separate note, i'm at the library, and this is my view at the moment:
no wonder i can't study. i can't stop looking at the trees!!!
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