Don't You Just Love It?

Don't you just love it when established posters get called out by new members who don't like the answers to the questions they've posted? Especially when the questions were rather inflammatory? This is a rant, this is only a rant. Nurses General Nursing Article

Don't You Just Love It?

Don't you just love it when someone posts a "homework question"? Something like "Why are all doctors so obnoxious?" or "What do you do about lazy CNAs?", but with no context? If it's a real question, you would expect that there would at least be some context in the question. Instead of "Why are all doctors so obnoxious?", there could be an explanation of why the poster believes all doctors are obnoxious, complete with a story about being mistreated by a doctor. Or a story about a lazy CNA . . . with a bit of an explanation about what the CNA did to make the poster believe she or he is lazy. But not, just the bare bones question that could have been a header.

And then, when someone attempts to answer them, either to ask for context or to hint that this might be a homework question and that the poster should do some thinking for himself or herself, the poster goes on the attack.

"I hope me and my family NEVER encounter you as a nurse!"

"You have no empathy!"

"You shouldn't even BE a nurse."

Really?

Someone posting homework questions on a nursing forum with the obvious intent that we nurses do their homework for them has no idea what makes a good nurse. They have no idea what a nurse is or does. And they really don't know anything about the poster they're attacking, including whether or not that person is a competent nurse. So how can they be informed enough to conclude that the person they're attacking shouldn't be a nurse or couldn't be a good nurse?

I have no problem helping out new nurses, student nurses and wannabe nurses -- it's the main reason I participate on AN. (Well, OK, that and the funny stories I often find on the ER forum.) But I'm getting tired of spending my time and effort answering questions and then being attacked because the poster doesn't like my answer.

Either someone wrote a long tale of woe, expecting everyone who read it to jump on their bandwagon and is amazed, hurt and insulted that someone dared to suggest that some of their problems might be attributed to THEIR actions, someone posted a homework question and is incensed that other posters might expect them to do some thinking for themselves, or someone started a thread with no other interest than just stirring the pot.

If you keep having problems with your co-workers no matter how many times you change jobs, chances are it's not them, it's you. Blowing rainbows up your skirt isn't going to help you deal with that problem.

If you've been a nurse for a year and are on your third or fourth or fifth job, it's not the toxic workplaces you've encountered, it's you.

If you've flunked the NCLEX twice, taking it again without some remediation is not going to be any more successful than it was the first two times. You may have been a straight "A" student or gone to the world's best nursing school, but you still have to pass the test.

Nursing is not a calling, it's a career. When I'm sick, I'm not looking for Florence reincarnated; I'm looking for someone competent. If all you have to offer is compassion and a calling, no thanks. (And I'm sorry, but I would not want you to be my nurse. I don't care how compassionate you are or how certain you are that nursing is your calling . . . I'd be really concerned about how well you remembered your unit's protocols and whether or not you really know anything about the drugs you're handing me. (Especially if you're insisting that I take my anti-hypertensives when my systolic is 80, but I digress.))

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Ruby Vee

About Ruby Vee, BSN

Ruby Vee BSN

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Ruby, I can always count on you to tell it like it is. Thank you for saying what so many of us feel in this article!

I also have no problem helping students out with homework, but I need to see that there's been a reasonable attempt by the student to solve the problem/answer the question first.

For example, instead of "How do you convert lb to kg?", I look for, "I don't understand the conversion factor for lb to kg. The patient in the problem is 100lb. Is it a matter of division or multiplication? How can you tell?" THAT I'll answer--a specific, focused question from someone who is looking for a piece of the puzzle to be cleared.

One of my pet peeves is when someone posts with a subject line such as "help" and in the thread body, they only write a word or phrase: "cardiac interventions". I'm not going to play nurse detective and dig into the OP for clarification, nor am I going to play super nurse and post every cardiac intervention known to man with details. That's what the rest of the internet is for. We here at AN are not Google search engines. Guaranteed, I'm going to leave that thread alone, and if I do post, it'll only be to tell you that if you want the benefit of AN's expertise, you'll need to do much, much better than that!

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

I had someone snap because I tried to guide them to discovering the answer. They really didn't like when I answered oh well not only did I pass nursing school, but I graduated, passed the NCLEX and am working as an honest-to-goodness licensed nurse. My homework is done, now it's your turn.

For the record I refuse to do my child's homework either. He did offer to trade math homework in 3rd grade. I was doing pediatric drug calculations and verifying safe dosages. He was working on the 1-9 multiplication tables. (He did like doing timed calculation drills. He scoured the internet for "hard ones" to give me, he found out apparently I can do over 90 math problems in less than a minute)

I like the "help" thread with "oncology algorithm" or "ICU protocol" in the body I'm not a mind reader but I feel like a jeopardy contestant and want to answer with a question. "what is treatment decision trees for cancer diagnosis ?"

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

Yes, I love the random, disjointed word salad that occasionally pop up, THEN the coherent, well thought out follow up of beratement that happens; which could've been used in the first place. ;)

Some posts are sooo incoherent, there's no way the greatest nurse detective (or any detective for that matter-Sherlock Holmes comes to mind even though fictional nonetheless) could POSSIBLY know what a poster is saying.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

I like the "help" thread with "oncology algorithm" or "ICU protocol" in the body I'm not a mind reader but I feel like a jeopardy contestant and want to answer with a question. "what is treatment decision trees for cancer diagnosis ?"

Or "what is an incoherent thought"? :cheeky:

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All throughout LPN school and even now while I'm pursuing my ADN I have never been assigned a HW question as the ones you mentioned.

"Why are all doctors obnoxious?" ..Why would a teacher even assign a question like that?

It might be a possibility that perhaps the OP didn't see a need to add additional info..Might not be so great with typing, etc. Many factors can go into this.

Assuming isn't the right thing to do. Its pretty much belittling that individual.

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
Or "what is an incoherent thought"? :cheeky:

I think GrnTea started that on an incoherent thread and a few others (myself included) continued in an insomniac haze. It was likely pulled when the OP became disjointed that we weren't mind readers.

My favorite was the one who admitted up front they just wanted us to do their incoherent assignment and right away!!!

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
I think GrnTea started that on an incoherent thread and a few others (myself included) continued in an insomniac haze. It was likely pulled when the OP became disjointed that we weren't mind readers.

My favorite was the one who admitted up front they just wanted us to do their incoherent assignment and right away!!!

YES...pretty damned cheeky for that poster, lol. :yes:

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

My favorite is the "I need to interview a nurse! Can you answer all these questions for me even though I can't verify you're who you claim to be?". Let me get right on that, so you can just copy and paste all my answers into whatever it is you have to turn in with absolutely no effort on your part.

Sometimes, I've been tempted to just start making things up that will make it quite obvious to the instructor reading said copy and paste that the student made no effort, kind of like what this person did to a friend's resume he was supposed to be proofreading: http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/never-ask-your-friends-to-proofread-your-resume

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Now that's one of the best rants that I've read in years.

I'd like to add when I'm posting about something that happened during a shift and a student or newbie breaks in with "Oh my is this what I have to look forward to as a nurse? Did I make the wrong career choice, etc. etc."

I always want to say that this isn't about you and heaven forbid you picked the wrong major in college. This is about me and what happened during my shift last night and I'm simply venting or maybe reaching out to others who may have experienced similar situations at work.

Of course I never say that but I really wish they'd just start their own thread about how they are fretting about their career choices because they are so shocked about what really happens during a nurse's shift.

People today have a lot more information available at their fingertips to make career decisions than when I was deciding to become a nurse so I don't get it.

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Why don't you just start your own board for only "established posters" if it bothers you so much.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

"Nursing is not a calling, it's a career. When I'm sick, I'm not looking for Florence reincarnated; I'm looking for someone competent. If all you have to offer is compassion and a calling, no thanks. (And I'm sorry, but I would not want you to be my nurse. I don't care how compassionate you are or how certain you are that nursing is your calling . . . I'd be really concerned about how well you remembered your unit's protocols and whether or not you really know anything about the drugs you're handing me. (Especially if you're insisting that I take my anti-hypertensives when my systolic is 80, but I digress.)) "

Amen, sister! Did you have the same nurse I did who insisted hydrochlorothiazide was a diuretic, not and anti-hypertensive, so it was okay for me to take it when my systolic was 78! When I tried to explain it to her, she literally stomped her little foot and said "Well I'M a nurse so I know and I'm just going to have to tell your doctor!" I was too sick to laugh...she did tell the doctor that I refused the medications he had ordered for me. I asked him if she told him my systolic was 78 and she was trying to give me HCTZ...I think she got two lessons that day...one from me and one from him

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