Are nurses becoming more negative on Allnurses?

[ilovenursing2009]

First of all I want to say I LOVE ALLNURSES!!! It has been the best resource for me for so many things.

Sadly, I have noticed in the last year or so that there are more and more negative postings. Some OP’s will post innocent topics and get torn a new one for nothing. Why?

We should be encouraging one another and not be putting people down. The saying "nurses eat their young"….I once thought it was not true, but I am beginning to think it is.

I am not trying to pinpoint nurses who have been in the field for many years; however, I have noticed many negative comments come from people who have forgotten what it was like to start out as a nurse. Other comments that are nasty I figure are from people who just have low self esteem and want to tear someone apart to feel better.

Maybe the economy is just taking a toll on people? Whatever it is I hate to see it. I love Allnurses. I would hate to see it become a negative place where people can’t share their thoughts without the fear of ridicule.

[llg, PhD, RN]

While I think there have been a few incidents of what you are talking about ... I don't think it is a major trend. I just think that nurses are getting more comfortable with internet posting and the culture of anonimity. In the old days of allnurses, fewer allnurses members had internet experience. They tippy-toed around everyone's feelings. Today, we are seeing more members who have been "swimming in the deep end" of the internet pool. I think our membership is more diverse in that respect.

Compared to other sites, this one is still exceptionally tame.

[P_RN, ADN, RN]

I haven't noticed a drastic change. There is more frustration, but then there are more members than 10 years ago when I joined. There have been some knock down/ drag out tiffs in our history I'd rather not remember.

Just do your best to be positive and maybe you'll see a change.

[healthstar, BSN, RN]

If all people were optimistic/ positive about everything---I can only imagine the world being a perfect place..no problems, worries, hurtful feelings.

[anonymurse]

Yes, and everyone in the world is becoming more negative.

There is a theory by Elliott Wave theorist Robert Prechter in his book The Wave Principle of Human Behavior and the New Science of Socionomics that social mood drives all large social phenomena, from the Dow Jones Industrial Average to hemline height to crime statistics to drivers' manners in traffic.

The cause of major social events and turns is therefore endogenous (from within society) rather than exogenous (driven by "external" events). This is a new idea. The prevailing idea, which is not borne out by data, is that events drive the DJIA which in turn drives social mood.

[TickyRN]

Actually the OP is right, there is an increase in negative posts & people over the past year. I think it is because a lot of people (nurses, non-nurses and wannabees) have found, and have access to AN.

I lurked around AN b4 I finally joined. I still love AN but I think twice b4 I post anything around here. I feel much safer posting sentences with few words eg

Goodluck

Yes

No

Maybe

Me too.

But I am grateful to the people who are bold enough to start some kind of threads, I just wish trolls would go away!!!

[kcochrane]

I don't really see a more negative tone. I do think the ones that get heated just remain in the mind. The problem is that when someone comes and posts about how "when they become a nurse" they aren't going to do this or that, it hits a raw nerve sometimes. Being a nurse is not easy and we can be become defensive easily. We deal with so much day in and day out, that we want others to understand that. I guess sometimes the delivery is just not the best.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

I agree with Ticky. I have seen tempers flare primarily around the fact that, on a nursing forum, questions/discussions are being answered or even hijacked by non-nurses. And I'm not referring to nursing students who chime in to ask questions or venture guesses at situations/problems. I'm talking the pre-pre-pre-nursing student who tends to come across all brassy and full of expertise as to how he/she would handle the situation if they ever got within a mile of it.

I haven't been here all that long, but have belonged to other online forums. I am amazed at how many people who truly have little to no connection to the field of nursing (other than hoping to go to nursing school one day) decide to jump in and offer their opinions. If I have no experience with the question/situation posed in any given thread, the last thing I'm going to do is jump in and give advice.

At any rate, that's where I see the sparks and angry posts.

[heron, ASN, RN]

There's also a difference between disagreeing and personal attack ... often honored more in the breach, I'll admit.

I do my best to avoid personal attack and excessively sarcastic language ... but I refuse to give phony "support" to something that I either disagree with or find offensive. If that comes across as "negative", then I'm sorry and will try to word my opinions a little better.

[oramar]

If it is happening, and I don't that it is, it could be due to the bad economy. There has been a lot of bad economic news in general and in health care career specifically. People should keep in mind that a lot of other fields have had even worse economic times than health care.

[WhiteScrubs]

I haven't been around allnurses long enough to be able to compare, but I'd wager that there are many factors that contribute to a feeling of hostility: the economy definitely is one -- nurses that can't find work, or are too afraid to leave a job that isn't healthy for them... they come here looking for support and a rant, and sometime get burned when all they wanted was a little support.

It helps when people who just want to rant identify it as a rant, and then others don't feel the need to scold or correct them quite as much, IMO.

Even with the negatives, I have gotten so much support from allnurses, and plan to stick around. Thanks to all the nurses that give of themselves, offer advice to newbies who need guidance or support, remind us why we became nurses in the first place.

[CNL2B]

I don't know about more negative either as I haven't been on here all that long. From my experience, the negativity that I have seen comes from 3-4 regular posters only, who seem to be very careful to get just snarky enough to not violate the TOS. Other than that, everyone else has been great.