[epiphany]

I do understand that allnurses is not a place to ask for medical advice. And I agree that it shouldn't for various reasons. However...

Sometimes I find that the moderators are a little too swift in cutting people off who may not intentionally be doing that. When we are distraught it sometimes just comes out. As nurses we should be the people who understand that a distress call doesn't always come carefully worded. I think that term "reflection" in therapeutic communication was conceived for this purpose. I think we, non-moderators are smart enough to be the judge of whether or not to reply to a direct medical question. And perhaps there is room to tell the poster that we may not be able to give medical advice but we can discuss their sadness, confusion, etc. I just feel bad when a moderator slams the door on the face a distressed person, and closes the thread. I feel like we can do better than that. I mean, look how much we talk here over issues deep or trivial.

Furthermore, lots of medical info exchange happens here. If you carefully word your post, you can get medical advice on this site - only make it like you're talking about a patient you just had.

My question to the moderators is - is there some kind legal backlash that you are concerned about? That this site would be closed if some pharmaceutical company or the AMA finds out about the liberal medical advice giving that's being dished out here? I mean if the site belongs to the subscribers, shouldn't we be allowed to make that decision? After all, we read the TOS presumably, and we can think for ourselves. Perhaps this site doesn't really belong to the subscribers. I don't know.

I'm just wondering.

[MLOS]

I respectfully disagree that the mods are too swift to close a thread in which a poster either directly solicits medical advice or wishes to rehash a health care experience.

I do not want this site to be at all at risk of becoming the Ask-A-Nurse line. I frankly wish that it was only open to registered users and not viewable by the vast internet public.

JMHO

[Nurse4years]

I once posted a thread re what happened to my daughter and grandchild, an EMTALA violation,
One of the moderators shut down the thread, and sent me a very nice note as to why, basically that there was potential litigation, and attorneys could find the thread with a simple Google search.
I was not a witness, and the EMTALA violations were public record, so there is no chance of compromise, but this was a judgement call made by moderators of a nursing website, one that I freely choose to visit and participate in.
Obviously, as they are not attorneys, they have to make their own judgements about various threads.
Closing the thread did not offend me, as this is a forum, provided by Allnurses.com, for sharing information. If there are lines that the Moderators don't want crossed, so be it. Judgement calls are not always easy, and I greatly enjoy this site and the information that it gives, not only to myself, but general public.
There are other websites that we can use, but none reach as many nurses as Allnurses.com.
Fine line on the judgement calls, but they have my vote.

[motorcycle mama]

I understand the need for moderation. I also do not want to see this site turned into an ask-a-nurse or do-my-nursing-homework-for-me line.

I will be the first to say I don't believe in free speech but I also resent it when I see a post get edited or a thread closed that I spent a lot of time on (and apparently at the discretion of one person.) In general, I think the moderators are fair and reasonable but I think a couple of moderators may have overestimated what it means to have authority over something. I guess it's just a balancing act and while I'm glad moderation filters out most of the trash and bottom feeders it stinks to be stifled, too.

[canoehead]

epiphany- a great post- I have wondered sometimes the same thing, but with other thoughts too.

Some answers to those posts are inaccurate, or accusing, or downright stupid. One factor to consider is when a family gets upset and emotional have we done them a service... ? I know- pros and cons to that especially if it seems like the health care team is ignoring their concerns.

I also don't want to be "ask a nurse." We get enough of that from the NCLEX forum, and people asking about how to get into nursing school, and even students giving a scenario and asking for a careplan. Some I would make an exception for, they've obviously done their homework and are looking for a specific piece to the puzzle.

I'd support an advice forum with the proper statements about how we aren't promising the advice is accurate, or even from a real nurse, but I'd want to be able to ignore the entire forum, not have it or the threads pop up on the screen at all.
Probably no one but newbies or question askers would post, and that would make something like "Ask Yahoo.com" just as good. Why waste bandwidth on something that alredy exists on the net?

[student1000]

Originally Posted by MLOS

I respectfully disagree that the mods are too swift to close a thread in which a poster either directly solicits medical advice or wishes to rehash a health care experience.

I do not want this site to be at all at risk of becoming the Ask-A-Nurse line. I frankly wish that it was only open to registered users and not viewable by the vast internet public.

JMHO

I agree that I also wish the site was open only to registered users and more of something like a list-serve but the format is better than nothing. Another option might be to let people view certain threads/forums before they decide to join just to "test the waters" to see if it is something they want to join. I, myself, have to be careful to be aware that whatever I post might be recognized as being posted by me in the real world.

If you ever do an internet search for a specific topic you often get referred to an allnurses thread-interesting to me.

[PsychRN03]

I've heard on this MB where member call the mods "Big Brother", and I believe in a sense, that is absolutely correct. I think a major reason for shutting down med/legal advice seeking threads is to protect us. Yes, I totally acknowledge that we are reasonable individuals who are capable of making informed, rational decisions. However, we are also compassionate, kind, caring individuals on a whole. We want to help others. And on a forum such as this, it's very easy for us to communicate as we would with a friend or family to, because, as I said, it is indeed our nature to want to help.

Problem is that in spite of our purest intentions, if our advice is followed and the outcome is very negative, the advisor would most certainly be open to being held accountable legally as well as risking an appearance before our BON for practicing medicine. And the argument that someone shouldn't follow the advice given online by a stranger wouldn't likely hold up because of the perception that they are seeking advice from health care providers.

[caroladybelle]

Originally Posted by epiphany

I do understand that allnurses is not a place to ask for medical advice. And I agree that it shouldn't for various reasons. However...

I just feel bad when a moderator slams the door on the face a distressed person, and closes the thread. I feel like we can do better than that. I mean, look how much we talk here over issues deep or trivial.

Furthermore, lots of medical info exchange happens here. If you carefully word your post, you can get medical advice on this site - only make it like you're talking about a patient you just had.

My question to the moderators is - is there some kind legal backlash that you are concerned about? That this site would be closed if some pharmaceutical company or the AMA finds out about the liberal medical advice giving that's being dished out here? I mean if the site belongs to the subscribers, shouldn't we be allowed to make that decision? After all, we read the TOS presumably, and we can think for ourselves. Perhaps this site doesn't really belong to the subscribers. I don't know.

Yes, often distressed people seek comfort here and often advice. And often they are not rational. When people are not rational, despite warnings on a site, they do irrational things. And since we the other BB posters may not know their frame of mind, we may inadvertantly post something that may incite dangerous things.

Examples:
A few years ago, a poster threatened to harm themselves to another poster, and they attempted to help privately. The issues that ensued from this caused a great deal of stress and discord on the BB. It also placed the mods in a very awkward and dangerous spot.

We have posters that ask if something is legally actionable. Invariably someone jumps in about the evil "x" MD/nurse/healthcare practitioner that diagnosed "y" and bad things happened. Most of the time, we are only seeing a very small part of the picture, and a biased part at that. How would any of us feel, if someone took a small statement on a BB, based on minimal one-sided data, and used it to treat a very good healthcare worker badly. We all, at work, have experienced someone saying one small thing and inadvertantly setting off trouble.

Recently, at work, a nurse used the words "fibrosis" and "congestive heart failure" and had a family talking about heart transplants and that the 60 year old patient had just developed cystic fibrosis. Only a few words, and then a minefield.

We also recently had a poster talked (jokingly, I hope) about harming her spouse/the other woman and whether it was appropriate/would bar her from a nursing license. Ironic, when you consider how many serious posters come here to find out whether assault convictions would bar them from licensure. While some may be joking, there are also some real feelings and issues there.

Also, do we really want to give bad news if what we know is going to be devastating to the poster and we cannot be there in person to comfort them. I have had nurses ask me oncology questions about "patients" and I gave them an answer that I would have framed more delicately, had I know that it was a relative or a friend that they were asking about.

I also don't like us becoming an Ask-A-Nurse. We see only a small amount of data and cannot form an appropriate response. And many of those are asking for BOTH sympathy and advice. One we can safely give, the other might further damage someone if we give it online.

In addition, Allnurses.com does not belong to the subscribers. It belongs to Brian and is not a democracy. We are here at his discretion, paid subscriber or not.

[PsychNurseWannaBe]

I have to admit I sometimes wondered about the same things mentioned. I also wished that this was more of a closed forum available to nursing professionals only...with maybe one or two forums available to the general public. I agree that I don't want this turned into ask a nurse or do my homework for me forum.

It is hard when someone asks a question that appears to be a medical question because there are things that can be done within the scope of nursing to help another feel better or just general advice can be given. As another OP mentioned it really is just a difference in word play...unless a poster asks for a blatant diagnosis.

But I do have faith in the Mods because they are trying to protect the forum. And I would hate to see this forum go down because of something.

I just look at it like this... If I am going to play in other person's sandbox...I have to play by their rules.

I am just grateful that this forum exists... it has helped me alot as a student and has helped me to grow as an RN. Would I love to ponder things that are outside the TOS for this forum...sure, but again... I have to play by the rules.

So with that said... I want to give a big thank you to the Mods. They do not get paid for this (that I know of) and they are doing this as a labor of love for the profession.

[PsychRN03]

and to add to my post above, I believe it's better to be proactive than reactive