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11th June 2004

Excuse me while I scream

posted in Uncategorized |

This truly ranks as one of the worst days ever.

Chris woke me up this morning, to tell me that he had heard a rumor that 70% of our class failed Social Medicine because of plagiarism. We had a term paper for the class- a truly hideous, painful paper. Quick background: it was a paper where we got a patient and we were supposed to analyze the social issues surrounding that patient. There were about 12 of us working on the same patient. We got together, decided what the issues were–everybody took an issue and researched it and sent out resources to the rest of the group–to make life easier. Then Chris and I put together all of that information, plus a lot of other fluffy stuff (believe me, you have no idea the stuff we were inventing). We worked on it for almost two months, meeting every Sunday (and I hate studying on Sundays. It’s my one day off!)–he wrote a basic draft of his in his fragmented thoughts, I went back and filled it in, he decided if he liked my changes. That wouldn’t have been so bad, except we weren’t allowed to turn in the same paper–so we took his paper and I basically rewrote the entire thing, with him editing it for me this time. We left several things the same, quotes and resources that would have been a royal pain to completely change–but I emailed my teacher when I turned it in and asked if it was okay. He said it was fine.

And I, in the spirit of helping friends out, emailed a copy to a few members of our group, with the idea that they could see what we had written and other ideas that they could incorporate into their own. At the time, Chris’s was the one that was finished, so that was the one I emailed.

I think you know where I’m going with this story.

So, today when we heard the news, there was some concern because we had written everything together and because we had shared information between our group. And since it was better to deal with this now before anybody else heard about it, we decided to go in this morning and talk to Dr. B–. And it was bad. About 40 people failed the paper because of plagiarism–or copying as Dr. B put it, because plagiarism is grounds for an automatic dismissal with the Dean’s office and thankfully, he wasn’t upset enough to want that. He was extremely upset because, as he put it, collaboration was fine, copying and sharing of work was not. We explained what we had done, how we had worked together, etc. I told him how I had emailed a copy to some members of our group–which he compared to speeding down a hill and not “intending” to–I was naive, but I had broken the boundaries by doing so.

We got him to look up our papers–I got a grade for mine, Chris didn’t. Of the two other people that I emailed the paper to, one passed, the other failed. He didn’t have the papers with him, so he told us to come back that afternoon and we could all compare them then.

We came back to my place, pulled out our papers and information. Ours still sounded somewhat similar, but there were enough differences that it was probably okay. But looking at the issue that M—– had sent out, it looked like Chris and I hadn’t changed enough–similar sentence structure, ideas, etc. We hadn’t realized that. We had used hers for reference while we were writing it and hadn’t looked at it again. Our fault. Chris was prepared to go to Dr. B— and tell him the mistake, so M—– wouldn’t get punished for it, and we’d write a new one.

So we went back, and looked at the papers–

M—– had copied Chris’s entire paper. There was not one word of difference in the whole thing. She had just arranged a few sections differently. That’s it.

If we can get her to talk to Dr. B– and admit that she copied it, Chris won’t have to write a new paper. If not, well, most likely my week of vacation will be spent writing a new one with him. There goes South Carolina. On top of all the boards stressing out, I do not need this.

I’m so incredibly pissed. Did she really think that she could get away with it? And what’s worse, I honestly trusted her. I saw no harm in showing her my paper, because obviously she wouldn’t just copy from it, she’s a nice person, yada yada. Honestly, I thought she was one of the sweetest, nicest people around. I hope she’ll admit she’s wrong–before this, I would have definitely thought that she would do so. Now, I don’t know.

Grrrr! I hate it when I can’t trust people!

I am glad that we went and talked to Dr. B— before everybody knew about it. I think it helped and he could see that we were trying to make it better. We were completely honest with him and hopefully, it’ll all work out. Geez, I hope so!

Looks like I’ll be spending my Friday night studying to catch up. Lovely. Just what I wanted.

Mai–got your email. I’ll write you later when I’m happier.

ETA just got this email from my teacher. Boy there’s nothing like having your professionalism called in to question to make you feel really lousy.

Dear Sophomore Class,

I believe the issue that has required this communication is, by far, the most difficult academic situation I have ever faced since joining the medical school faculty in 1994, which makes this letter the most difficult one I have ever had to write.

I am writing to discuss a most disturbing situation that has occurred in your class regarding the required Care Plans for Spring Semester in the Social Medicine course. The situation is one that has very serious ethical and professional implications. Several members of this class have apparently copied all, or various parts, of their Care Plans from other students, including Sections 3 (Beliefs and Attitudes) and Section 5 (Preparation), which clearly require that you are to express your own opinion (see written instructions in your syllabus). Likewise, Section 7 (Justification) asks you to explain why you should change your practice and/or attitudes. While I am the first to acknowledge that I have encouraged collaboration in analyzing the Care Plan cases and discussing potential responses, this is a very different concept from copying (even if the copying is not exactly word-for-word). This unacceptable behavior on a required class assignment is clearly unethical and unprofessional, and, therefore, results in very serious consequences.

As sophomore medical students, you have made clear your interest in becoming a physician. In fact, I know that you have worked hard and made many sacrifices toward achieving this worthy goal. However, one sacrifice that you can never make in this pursuit is to compromise the ethical principles upon which our profession was founded and depends. I would refer you to the declaration of the Association of American Medical Colleges on “Professionalism for Physicians” dated November 4, 2001. This declaration includes the following statements: “Physicians adhere to high ethical and moral standards.” “Physicians evince core humanistic values, including honesty and integrity, *” “Physicians exercise accountability for themselves and for their colleagues.” And, finally, “The profession of medicine is a self-regulating profession, dependent on the professional actions and moral development of its members *.”

Each of you will need to look deep inside yourselves to determine the appropriateness and righteousness of your own actions. Whether or not you dislike the Care Plan concept and assignment or whether or not your group pressured you to share answers (copying as opposed to collaborating), the final ethical and moral decision to not submit your own work, in your own words, was yours. I hope that you can honestly accept that responsibility.

(snip)

(sigh)

This entry was posted on Friday, June 11th, 2004 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Comments


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    _flutter@livejournal says:

    *hugs* I’m sorry sweetie. You know I’m here.


  • Warning: file_get_contents(http://mrschimpf.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
    mrschimpf@livejournal says:

    Uggh, that totally sucks Julia, I’m glad you were able to clear things up with the professor, but other students took advantage of your generosity :(. I read the letter too, could that sound more condecending?

    ((((((hug)))))) I hope things get better for you before they get worse.

    • admin says:

      {{{hug back}}} yeah it does. Things are completely fixed with the professor. He still thinks I’m a idiot (and a bit of a cheater too) for sharing that paper, but honestly, i still don’t see anything wrong with my actions.

      The letter, yeah, it was condesending. I understand that he was upset–he just failed 40 people in the class. That’s the problem–that it was more than just M—- who was doing the cheating. Which makes me furious. I spent so much time and energy writing that stupid thing and now we’re all getting the reprocusions. And it hurt, too. I have a lot of insecurities about me and medicine–I’m not sure that I have the emotional strength to handle it if some doctor yells at me. I think I do, but I wonder and feak out a lot. I don’t like adding on thoughts that I’m going to be a lousy physician because I was a sucker.

      It should get better. I am an optimist!


  • Warning: file_get_contents(http://avidtvfan.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
    avidtvfan@livejournal says:

    I’m so sorry, Julia. That absolutely wasn’t fair.

    🙁

    I hope it works out for you…


  • Warning: file_get_contents(http://shirerain.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
    shirerain@livejournal says:

    *HUGS*

    Ugh, that’s infuriating. And just illustrates the whole ‘I-don’t-work-with-people’-thing that I have. It doesn’t matter how good your intentions are, there’s always someone who’ll take advantage or not think for themselves. And then they’re all o_O when things go wrong. And that e-mail – how old does he think you are? (Ten by the sound of it). You made a mistake and then you admit to that mistake and talk to him and try to work something out and then you get something like this.

    I’m crossing everything I have (that can cross) that things work out and that you can still have your nine days off. *sends good vibes* Will talk to you tomorrow and then you can rant all you want. 🙂

    Oh and the thing about your dad’s birthday – *hugs*. I know, you always feel like the lowest form of life on the planet when something like that happen. And it happens to all of us at some point, so don’t feel too bad about it.


  • Warning: file_get_contents(http://claidheamhmor.livejournal.com/profile): failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden in /home/lotrinkl/www/redheadsnippet/wp-content/plugins/also-lj-avatar/also-lj-avatar.php on line 118
    claidheamhmor@livejournal says:

    {{{hugs}}} That’s really lousy. Pity some people don’t think too far about what they’re doing…

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