Cheating during a rotation?

[carrigallen]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Greetings all,

Our med school class is having a symposium on Professional Conduct, and I wanted to solicit examples of cheating during *clinical years* from sdn. Our class will review them and discuss.



Is cheating ever acceptable in a clinical setting? What would you include in your definition of ?cheating?? E.g., Is lying about another commitment to avoid an extra shift cheating? Is looking for old shelf exams cheating?



What are some borderline examples of cheating you have encountered during your clerkships?

Please feel free to post any thoughts/examples!

 

[kcrd]

I've had classmates blow off call thinking that it wouldn't get back to anyone important (residents never seem to get copies of med students schedules). I wouldn't call it cheating, but it would definitely be considered unprofessional behavior.

 

[Mirror Form]

I know students on out-pt rotations who have coordinated w/ the other couple students on that same rotation to not go at certain times b/c of a fictional "lecture" or whatnot.

 

[lowbudget]

No, fictional lectures aren't cheating. If you're not interested, you're not interested. They really don't care if you're there or not.

I think of cheating as passing small group cases to the next class coming in when you know the cases are the same just so you can get a better eval in small group and sound like genius when you spit out differentials and workup.

 

[Galaxian]

What the hell is borderline cheating?

 

[Idiopathic]

Originally posted by carrigallen
Is cheating ever acceptable in a clinical setting?

If it saves a life (not the student's).

 

[edmadison]

Originally posted by lowbudget
No, fictional lectures aren't cheating. If you're not interested, you're not interested. They really don't care if you're there or not.

By fictional lectures, the poster meant getting together and telling saying that you have a lecture when you really don't -- so you can have the afternoon off.

Ed

 

[the END.]

Well, one pure example of cheating is if any rotation has in-service examinations, whether clinical with standardized patients or traditional written tests, and someone passes on the contents of the test to his/her friends that rotate later in the year. Some would argue that its the rotation's fault for not changing the questions, but that is ridiculous. Passing on questions of a test to someone who has not taken it is cheating.

One item my med school is big about as far as unprofessional behavior goes is the aspect of inappropriately accepting credit for something done by another person. This is usually referenced in the context of presenting an H&P on morning rounds when someone else did the H&P, but you present as if you did the entire thing. We always talked about what we should say in that situation, whether its fair to do this if you were given the patient a few minutes before rounds, etc.

Another good topic of unprofessionalism that follows my second item is if some resident takes credit for your work or has you write notes that they sign only their name to (ask you not to sign the note, just write it). Not surprisingly, my med school discusses unprofessional student behavior ad nauseum but never even mentions resident/attending behavior.

 

[carrigallen]

Thank you for the responses!

Especially The END, just wondering, which medical school do you go to? It sounds like your school is good about addressing these concerns.