jnjplus6

I have found that this is not the first time I've been faced with a moral dilemma, that there are probably more that are not following their moral compas and it truly amazes me how it isn't always the young adults that are acting inappropriately. Over the weekend, when I was still rolling the cheating issue around in my head, I thought I'd ask the youngest 2 children (ages 14 son & 17 daughter) about how they felt about a hypothetical story, which happened to be what happened, I just didn't tell them it happened in my class and that I was the witness. My daughter was at a friend's house, so she was asked about it later in the day. I am proud to say that both of them said that if it happened to them, they would be mad and wouldn't have any problem speaking up about it, whether is was confidential or not. When asked what they thought if someone called them a snitch or rat, they went on to tell me that it didn't matter, what the cheaters were doing was wrong, unfair to the others in the class and it wouldn't make them very trustworthy as a friend in the future. I'm amazed that my youngest 2 weren't worried about any ramifications, yet their mom is a total freak about it. lol In my defense, I did have to deal with retaliation issues after I reporting my then paramedic partner. It was my first paid job as a basic, and my first time to work this paramedic. She was rumored to be difficult to work with, but I had an open mind and typically give everyone the benefit of the doubt, until they prove otherwise. The first part of the shift, we are checking off the truck and my partner wants to change out the main O2 tank. No problem, so I am trying to get the tank out of the storage area at the station, when my supervisor stopped me and wanted to know what was going on and wanted to know how much O2 was left in the tank on the truck. Since I didn't look at the reading, I wasnt' sure. My partner comes to find out what's taking me so long and proceeds to tell the supervisor that there was 400psi on the tank and that she wanted it changed out. The supervisor reminded her that the service's protocols state to change it out at 200psi, yet she wanted to argue with him and told him 500psi. I just sat back and listened. We ended up not changing out the tank and started taking calls. After lunch, we are dispatched to a call for a patient from a long term/rehab hospital to a major hospital for some testing. The patient was ALS, needing cardiac monitoring, O2 and the hospital also wanted a pulse ox to monitor his sat rates continuously. Our service did not carry a pulse ox on trucks, and that fact was just another bee in my partner's bonnet. The hospital loaned us theirs since we were just bringing the patient back after his tests, so we transport him to the testing hospital a few blocks away. We were to remain at the hospital until the patient was ready to be returned. So we grab something to drink and go out to the bay for our "breathing treatments". That is when my "lovely" partner tells me that she left the main O2 running. My reaction is, okay, I'll go cut it off. She then stops me, tells me that she wants it to run out and for me not to touch it. She then goes to see how much we had left and then makes a phone call to dispatch to tell them that we were out of service, send another truck and we need a main O2 tank because we were out! She even went so far as to lie about how many portable tanks we had and the amount that was in them. Our station was about 25-30 miles away from where we were and there were no other units available to take over our patient or bring us O2. I had never been put in a situation like that before and sadly it rattled me quite a bit on who I could trust at work. I couldn't believe that someone would do something of that nature just to prove a point. The rest of the time working with this woman was extremely uncomfortable and I couldn't stop thinking about the whole thing. Thankfully, our supervisor knew that there was something up with the whole O2 thing and had someone talk with my partner at the same time he was talking to me. Ended up writing a detailed incident report and she ended up fired. We all know that each city's EMS community is pretty close knit, you can't sneeze wrong without another service hearing about it. My partner ended up getting hired by another service, later as an ER tech while she went to nursing school and now an ER nurse. Not only is it awkward to run into her, but she would talk trash to me, threaten to do this or that to me, and basically harass me anytime she has an opportunity. My next shift was a 24, and I went out to find someone had slashed 2 of my tires. I couldn't prove who did it, but always had an idea. Why is it when someone is doing the right thing by reporting another's indiscretion or wrong doing, they end up feeling worse than the person that was doing wrong? Sometimes it feels like it's such a heavy burden staying on the straight and narrow. I lose sleep when I have a situation like the cheating thing because I think and analyze things, I can't imagine what I'd be like if I was the one doing the cheating. lol

Well, I went ahead and emailed my instructor earlier today and later this afternoon he called me. He was not surprised about the situation or who is involved, he had his suspicions.rolling around already. Now that one of us (students) has brought it to his attention so to speak, he's going to thoroughly investigate and go from there. The instructor did ask for me to write up an incident report, was completely understanding and supportive. Thank you for giving me some support on this and encouraging me to say something. =)

Wow! Thank you for the support guys! I don't know why, but I am worried about people saying that I would be wrong for being a "tattle tale". I usually don't give a flip on what others think about me, maybe I'm more like that when it comes to my opinions or my sense or lack of style. lol For the most part I am an outgoing, fun loving person, that is friendly to everyone. Since we spend so much time together in our EMT-B class, friendships form and we end up going to lunch together, doing study groups together, etc. This whole situation is even more upsetting because I was under the impression that we were new friends. I would have never thought that either one of these folks would be the sort that would cheat or even make it seem like it was a dog eat dog world in class. chbare: I believe that you thought that I should have gone and said something Thursday night about the situation. We have a VERY small class of 10 people and I was so dumbfounded and beyond ticked off, I don't think the timing would be good. However, they've done this twice now, so I'm pretty sure that it is going to be a common occurance until they are forced to stop one way or another. What do y'all think about the skills testing issue I mentioned? It was not one of the two that cheated that I was the bystander for during their test. While it's a different concern than the cheating issue, it's still a concern. Or maybe on the skills issue, I should just let that one roll off my back. Thank you again for your suggestions and opinions!

Hi! I'm new to EMTCity and so far I'm loving what I see. It's so nice to have a place for us to come and "hang out" with others that understand. Let me first mention, that I was an EMT-B for several years and let my certification expire in 2006, thinking I wasn't going to miss what I do as much as I have. So I am retaking EMT-B again and the oldest student in the class! lol I'm enjoying it for the most part and the other part, I wanted to get your words of wisdom about. Or like the Friday night show on ABC, "What Would You Do?" I'm looking forward to getting to know y'all! I had been rolling a couple of things around in my head since we did our Pre-Clinical Skills day on February 2nd, then after class Thursday night, I thought maybe if I just wrote everything down, maybe I'd feel better. Since the event that occurred Thursday night is really what pushed me to write this, I'll start there. We were given a quiz to take over the heart valves and vital signs. Several times when our instructor left the classroom, there were a couple of people cheating and one of them even asked me for an answer to a question. I simply shrugged my shoulders as a reply to this person. The cheating also happened on Skills Saturday on the "I'm a drop of blood" quiz, with the same people. In my opinion, the person is taking the answers from another that seems to put an effort into their work. Is that person allowing the other to take the answers? It's a good possibility, since they were talking to one another, but "does it take two to tango"? Maybe it's because I'm the oldest in our class, maybe I'm old school, maybe I'm a snitch...But, I just don't understand how anyone can do this to themselves and their classmates. In my eyes, cheating is showing total disrespect to their classmates, the instructor and themselves and is a form of lying. If a person is going to lie or cheat on something like a quiz, what does that say about their moral character in the long run? Honestly, it angers and frustrates me to know that the grades were better for the dishonest, then for those who did what they were supposed to do. Another thing I have that's eating at me, is over our skills testing. On my first testing on the one person CPR/AED, I was told I failed due to being off the chest too long to give my first breathes to the patient after my 30 compressions. I was having a problem with the plastic barrier film that we were given to use for the mouth to mask and getting the chest to rise. As I continued through my test and got to the point where I am to tell someone to continue compressions while I set up the AED, that person was "out in left field" and didn't jump in to assist. So instead of setting up the AED, I immediately went back to my chest compressions while I got my "bystander's" attention and asked them to continue chest compressions while I set up the AED, while setting up the AED, I was asked to stop because I had already failed due the 10 seconds off the chest and the plastic barrier device. When it came to retesting, I was asked to be the "bystander" for another classmate that was needing to retest on the one person CPR/AED with a different instructor. While I was watching and waiting to assist with "bringing the AED and compressions", I saw things that I thought may have been a problem with passing that skill. Incomplete compressions (no clicking noise on the manekin) at least 3 times in each set of the 5 sets of 30 compressions in the one person CPR, "bystander" went through 2 sets of 30 compressions and had to grab the BVM, put the mask on it to give 2 breathes while the tester was setting up the AED, and after shock was administered, the tester did not advise to go right back to doing chest compressions, but instead waited on AED to analyze the patient, advising all to stand clear, at that point instructor states "no shock advised", then the tester stated "you do compressions". I was surpised when this person told me that they had passed this skill. I have been thinking about these things over the past week and even asked another classmate about their opinion on the AED skills test issue, since I honestly didn't think the cheating was going to end up happening again. Their opinion was to just let it go and see what happens. This past Thursday night I was truly angry over the cheating issue and I just kept thinking about everything that has happened. Wondering if my instructor or any of the other instructors running the program, that may read this would think I'm just a snitch, crybaby, poor sport, or worse, by being told that I can't continue through EMT-B and ask me not to come back for any further EMS courses because I rock the boat. I'm not writing this to get anyone in trouble, make waves or for personal gain. I am writing this for my classmates and others that may take these courses in the future. Throughout my writing this, I am worried that if I turn this letter in, that the rules may change on skills testing. I loved that it was kept casual, stress free and I'm almost positive my classmates enjoyed it that way as well. It was a major change compared to what I remembered when I had tested in the past. I can still feel the stress of lining up in a hallway behind a closed door, studying each skill sheet, waiting for my turn to test. Then going into the room with one or two instructors to preform a particular skill, not knowing until a few hours later if I had passed each skill. I am also not writing this for the person for whom I was a bystander for, because I "feel" they did poor on that particular test. While the cheating in the class truly inferiates me, the skills issue is a minor concern more than anything else. The concern is the inconsistancy of the testing instructors. What may fail you with one instructor (ie plastic barrier film) on a particular skill, another instructor may believe that you know what you're doing and allow you to pass on skill. Please don't think that I am writing this trying to be some sort of know it all or cause trouble, that's not what I'm about. I hope that you would take this as a concerned student that is a team player, willing to help anyone anytime she can, while trying to also be a sort of a role model with a positive attitude. While I may be a little too outspoken and probably should have just let all this roll off my back, sit down and shut up...something inside just tells me to say something, maybe it was just for me to say something by writing this down for myself and getting it off my chest. I hope you understand & thanks for reading