PSA to our colleagues conducting research on Allnurses

[Guttercat]

One of the most difficult surveys to conduct are online surveys, because it takes people willing to actively stop what they're doing, and take personal time out of their day to follow the stinking links and enter their answers.

Those that blow through here and drop a bomb of, "Please help me conduct my MSN/Capstone project!" and yet can't take a few minutes themselves to respond to their own threads -- pretty much stink.

There are thousands of nurses in here, and many of us will need each other to help gather data in our own future projects. This could be a great place for such data-gathering.

So, please, if you are going to present a plea for respondents, at least respond to your own thread.

Kthxbye.

Edit to add: mods will have this thread moved to the unseen hinterlands of the "Colleague/relations" forums before I can click my little red slippers. Cue the flying monkeys. :)

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

LMAOMCOMN!

(laughing my donkey off, milk coming out of my nose)

I would pay good money to see that article posted on the NCLEX forum. I double-dog dare ya.

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

When I actually did my dissertation back in 2000, It took me months to complete, 15000-18000 words

My research articles for my Degree took me 6 weeks and were about 5000 words long, they were proof read and written in a special format.

It is extremely stressful to do research and write up findings, a lot depends on the results, normally a grade or your future

On allnurses when I am writing 'an article' I normally care about what I am writing but what I am not concerned about is, if I pass or fail. I normally write for enjoyment and although they do not appeal to everybody, I hope some enjoy them.

Having been in healthcare a few years, it never ceases to amaze me how often we criticize but rarely support.

I am often unconventional, rarely negative and deeply proud of what I have achieved-In real life my goal is to inspire and improve quality patient care.

Sometimes you have to question, why do you come on to allnurses, and what do you believe you contribute to our nurses on here?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

AN is a professional nursing website. Doesn't necessarily mean that we are providing scholarly articles. Our "articles" are meant for entertainment and social networking, not to be used as a gold standard for patient care.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

Our "articles" are meant for entertainment and social networking, not to be used as a gold standard for patient care.

So these "articles" differ from a regular post how?

On allnurses when I am writing 'an article' I normally care about what I am writing but what I am not concerned about is, if I pass or fail. I normally write for enjoyment and although they do not appeal to everybody, I hope some enjoy them.

And other than a 300 word limit, how does this differ from a regular post?

Giving it a separate title implies that an article is different from a typical random post. Giving it a bright red "ARTICLE" next to it implies it's different from the post above it that doesn't have the bright red "ARTICLE." What is the official AN differentiation?

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

I am not going to argue with you, as you are entitled to your own opinion but just for the record it is 500 words not 300

[OCNRN63, RN]

So these "articles" differ from a regular post how?

And other than a 300 word limit, how does this differ from a regular post?

Giving it a separate title implies that an article is different from a typical random post. Giving it a bright red "ARTICLE" next to it implies it's different from the post above it that doesn't have the bright red "ARTICLE." What is the official AN differentiation?

​This is what I find confusing.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

When I actually did my dissertation back in 2000, It took me months to complete, 15000-18000 words

My research articles for my Degree took me 6 weeks and were about 5000 words long, they were proof read and written in a special format.

It is extremely stressful to do research and write up findings, a lot depends on the results, normally a grade or your future

On allnurses when I am writing 'an article' I normally care about what I am writing but what I am not concerned about is, if I pass or fail. I normally write for enjoyment and although they do not appeal to everybody, I hope some enjoy them.

Having been in healthcare a few years, it never ceases to amaze me how often we criticize but rarely support.

I am often unconventional, rarely negative and deeply proud of what I have achieved-In real life my goal is to inspire and improve quality patient care.

Sometimes you have to question, why do you come on to allnurses, and what do you believe you contribute to our nurses on here?

If that's not completely rhetorical, here's my answer:

I contribute to students understanding physiology, the instructors' perspective on nursing education, and, to some extent, the world of work.

I have lost track of how many resumes I have critiqued to make them more business-friendly, how many letters to employers I have helped them rewrite, or how many recommendations I have written for students (these last only for people I know in real life, not from AN).

I try to get people to see the bigger picture, to see nursing as more than tasks and checklists, to get them to understand the rationales that stand behind us when we make decisions. I try to get people to see another side of a situation or question that maybe is novel to some of them.

I advocate for excellence in research and critical thinking in all areas of nursing (but you noticed that).

I make people laugh once in awhile, or shed a sympathetic tear if that happens.

That's what this is about.

I wrote a killer thesis with real research and got a national award for it, so I totally get what you're saying about working hard to make your faculty happy. While I know not everyone had the privilege of working with a faculty like ours, I know that as a profession that we can certainly help people do better than we see in the "academic research" forum. I'd like to see AN get behind that idea, or say definitively, "Well, we don't really care about that at all. Don't ask us anymore." Just so we're clear on that.

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

AN is a professional nursing website. Doesn't necessarily mean that we are providing scholarly articles. Our "articles" are meant for entertainment and social networking, not to be used as a gold standard for patient care.

While manifestly true, this isn't really related to what we were trying to communicate. We were hoping you'd (collective you) see an opportunity to do something bigger and better, to really benefit the profession, not just be an amusing, time-wasting diversion from real life. People have Facebook for that, ferhevvinsakes.

We got asked to discuss this. Some people even thought it was one of the best threads evah. And now, well? There's backing off and "we're not discussing gold standards for care, we're just for social networking and entertainment."

Some of us find this disappointing. Please reconsider.

[wooh, BSN, RN]

I am not going to argue with you, as you are entitled to your own opinion but just for the record it is 500 words not 300

Then correction to the question NOBODY seems to want to actually answer:

Other than a 500 word minimum, what is the difference between a post and an article? What makes these 501 random words a post but those 501 random words an article?

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

I think we all understand that for an individual learner there's always a starting point. We've all been there. However, my cavil is aimed at the products of "master's" level programs. These ought not to be learners who are naive to research; if they haven't done it yet and these are their first attempts, they ought to at least show evidence that they have learned something about it. This has nothing to do with getting As. It has to do with, well, competence. I'd be happy with a valid study done by someone with any GPA. Unfortunately, the fault lies largely in the faculties. Grades for effort doesn't seem to apply here either; these effortless proposals are being approved by faculty.

We understand that learners have to do what their faculties require. However, what sort of message would it send to those faculties if AN's institutional review board (for lack of a better term, and you ought to have or have access to people qualified to serve on one) really served the purpose of giving feedback to their student applicants? What if AN started saying to these applicants presenting (I can't think of a better term, sorry) bogus "research" plans that they don't meet standard for basic research because of a, b, and c, and encouraging them to go back to their faculties for assistance in amending the flaws in the proposals to make them more valid?

(If (OK, let's be clear on the major offender) WGU students stop taking this appallingly easy out and stop coming here, especially if they learn WHY, I don't think that would be much of a loss to AN in particular and nursing in general. Some may produce decent research anyway, hooray for them! The others will choose to find a better way to do it or find somewhere else to do it as it stands. So what if they leave? Do we want to have actual standards or what? Does AN want to seek a better reputation? Think about that seriously.)

THEN we'd have something, and be doing something proactive to really influence the practice of nursing. This could result in better research. Even if that's an agonizingly slow process, as I am sure it would be, at very least a stronger review process would give online readers (especially students, but practicing nurses too) better exemplars of nursing research so they have more reason to respect the evidence-based practice that produces it. We all know how many people see nursing research...and I submit that it's because a lot of people can suss out nonsense when they see so much of it.

This need is not met by posting "articles." And if you mean by posting academic articles that AN posts the results of these programs, those don't count. If you mean more members posting their real research here, well, many, many of us are not in a position to perform research in our practices. We are not unreasonable to rely on actual academia to do the heavy lifting on that. AN should not encourage this lightweight fluff by dignifying it with the title of "academic research."

^^^This. All of it. ^^^

Thanks so much for keeping that bar high.

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

OK. I'll admit that I enjoy the "articles" on AN-- in the same way that I might flip through a Reader's Digest in a waiting room. I think there is definitely room for that here.

As some have said (or at least intimated), there is also a place for internet polling as a means to problem solve in the process of scholarly research, but not as the primary means of data gathering and focus of the research.

[Guttercat, ASN, RN]

(I also want to extend a note of personal gratitude to the mods and Admins of AN for responding, and also allowing this little thread to fly and be free.)

Tough topics are tough. I am the better for the discussion that has ensued.