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.

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.))