Forged Doctor's Notes and the Different Stages

By: Valerie Benchimol

For the last six months, I have been working in a medical clinic. I am in charge of all the patients' files. Last Monday, a lady came in the clinic; she looked preoccupied. She told me she was a teacher at Vanier College and she wanted to speak to the doctor. While waiting for the doctor, we started to chat, since I am a student at Vanier College. I asked her who she was and what courses she taught. After a couple minutes, she reached in her pocket and showed me a piece of paper. I recognized it because it was one of the doctor's notes. The professor, then, asked me if by any chance I knew the patient to whom the note was addressed. I told her I was sorry but that type of information was confidential. A few minutes later, the doctor came out of his office and I introduced the lady to him. They proceeded to a consultation room and even though they were not near me, I could very clearly hear their conversation.

Apparently, one of her student submitted a doctor's note, because she had missed an exam. This note was written on a doctor's note pad from this clinic, but the note seemed false. Just to verify her hunch, the professor thought she would drop in to see the doctor in question and clear her conscious. Well, she was right. After examining the note, the doctor confirmed he had never written it. The professor asked the doctor if he was sure and, again, he said it wasn't his handwriting. Furious, he asked more details concerning this event. The professor explained that it all started when she gave a midterm exam. A few days later, a student showed up in her office and handed-in a doctor's note to excuse herself for having missed the exam. The teacher explained that when she looked at it (with all her years of experience) it looked suspicious, therefore she decided to investigate.

At Vanier College, would this dishonest act be considered cheating?

First, let's define the word cheating. In "Vanier student writing guide", cheating is defined as an act of dishonesty. "Cheating is knowingly furnishing false information to the College." The student knew what he/she was doing. Usually, when a student is not prepared for an exam, he/she will pretend to be sick or have a related death in the family. Pretty common excuses, no? This particular student chose to go the extra mile by going and stealing a doctor's note from his practitioner. She meticulously planned this. Therefore, it is consider an act of dishonesty.

The doctor revealed in a private interview, that he wasn't surprised. In all his years as a doctor, he has seen plenty of cases similar to this one. He explained how this could happen: "Have you ever noticed how sometimes you are in the doctor's office and the doctor is called to another room for some reason?" The doctor leaves everything on his desk and attends to the emergency. After a few moments of reflection, he added: "The average patient would wait patiently for the doctor, gazing around the office out of pure curiosity. While, you have others who will seek opportunities, for example: spotting my note pad on my desk. Many have written themselves false prescriptions, and others, have stolen note pads to be exempted from school."

The doctor admitted to be troubled by these acts but he couldn't do anything about it. Curious, I asked him why he doesn't carry his pad with him at all times so that no one could forge a note? He answered me by explaining that doctors, in general, have a lot of responsibilities. Sometimes it's too much to ask a doctor to remember to carry their pads. He added that doctors have to trust their patients even if things like this happen.

A few days later, I went to see a teacher that works at Vanier. We started to talk about plagiarism in the College and I asked her if it was common to have cases of cheating among her students. This professor said that it was pretty common for the new comers to cheat on assignments and exams. "You have to understand that these kids are new to the establishment and they apprehend the unknown. Some panic and decide to take the easy way out," she said.

A study on cheating shows that males are more prone to be involved in an act of dishonesty. It involves younger students and undergraduates as opposed to graduates (Buckner, 1987). In 1993, the Gazette surveyed 350 students and 25% of them admitted to having cheated in school.

In Vanier, the consequences are standard to the other academic establishments. The student who is caught cheating, one form or another, will have a grade of zero on the examination. Also, a letter from the teacher will be placed in his file. This creates severe damage to the student's file because his chances of going to an excellent school, afterward, become inexistent.