When students see their peers cheating, they need to take immediate action. In the studied scenario, two students saw another student use his phone during an exam. Assuming that they did not misunderstand or misjudge the event, they witnessed a common type of classroom cheating, which consists of obtaining answers from sources other than one’s memory. Other examples of classroom cheating include plagiarizing and having somebody else perform particular tasks, including homework and tests (Allen, 2017; Malesky, Baley, & Crow, 2016; Oran, Can, Şenol, & Hadımlı, 2016).
In clinical settings, students typically attempt to avoid performing their duties, for instance, by leaving their shifts early, and they can also engage in different types of malpractice, for example, by failing to follow sanitation guidelines (Allen, 2017). In either case, cheating involves dishonesty and is usually supposed to save time or effort, even though it results in insufficient knowledge or practice.
The students from the scenario are likely to be aware of the ethics code of their institution, and the code probably includes passages about academic integrity. Even if students are not directly instructed to report similar incidents, such conduct is most definitely expected. Furthermore, keeping silent about such events will result in certain negative outcomes. First, the person who cheated will not be reminded of his duty to earn his grades honestly.
He will also proceed to receive substandard education; he is the first victim of his actions. However, he is a future nurse, and deficient education in nurses is a large problem. In addition, if there is any competitive aspect to the test, this student will receive an unfair advantage. In the end, the action is dishonest and can have negative consequences, which is why reporting it is important and should be helpful in preventing similar events.
References
Allen, C. (2017). Academic dishonesty among undergraduate nursing students. International Archives of Nursing and Health Care, 3(3), 1-3. Web.
Malesky, L., Baley, J., & Crow, R. (2016). Academic dishonesty: Assessing the threat of cheating companies to online education. College Teaching, 64(4), 178-183. Web.
Oran, N., Can, H., Şenol, S., & Hadımlı, A. (2016). Academic dishonesty among health science school students. Nursing Ethics, 23(8), 919-931. Web.