I think I'm done answering student nurse help me threads here.
I've gotten rude answers, or they never even bother coming back to the thread to acknowledge the answers they received.
Some will ask life choice questions like "Where should I move?" or "Where should I apply?". Do they think someone is going to offer them a job here, is that why they start these threads? You have the whole internet to research towns, cities, regions, but instead you post a thread asking a bunch of strangers where you should move?
Some help me threads seem to be 'Help me do my homework' threads.
Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
OK, I'm 800 posts into "The Mockery of Nursing" thread, and I've laughed so hard my stomach aches. And my fingers hurt from pressing the "like" button!
OK, here goes my first comment. I am not a nurse or LPN, but I am a CNA. I got my certification in South Carolina. I am Canadian but married an American citizen and lived there for 4 years and got my certification. I have moved back to Canada, BC to be specific and they will not recognize my certification. I have a years experience in LTC/Rehab. I love my job and am so disappointed that I cannot use my education here. Has anyone else had this experience and what did you do? Please don't tell me you redid the course, I refuse to give the BC government my hard earned money(working at Walmart and EA at schools). Do all of the Provinces have this policy? I would appreciate any and all comments.
Thank you in advance.
I...honest to goddess...thought...this was a joke -- a mashup of all the posts that were being poked fun at. Ooops!
I'm going to play devils advocate here. According to the BLS the area I want to live in has a reported (via BLS 2012), average wage for RN's is 65k. According to people on this forum (in '08/ '09) the wage was $22/hr. Nowhere near 65k (15k less give or take) In that regard, the research was not accurate. Unless you're going to tell me that the wages have gone up 12k in a year. Or could there be such high wage in experienced nurses that it skews the average upwards? If so, the BLS site isn't gonna tell me that! (so i come here!)[/quote']
I posted something similar here after realizing salary.com was posting average wages of around $10 an hour more than I'm pretty sure the new grads are being paid. I'm not going to lie - it was disappointing to see that difference.
I enjoy helping. I find most students appreciative and participate. If you want help you need to show me your effort. I always ask what they posted...they don't come back? Their loss. When I say I won't do the homework for you and they get indignant and angry....guess who wanted the easy way out? The ME TOO! Threads and e-mail addresses baffle me. Why on earth would you put that information out there? Do the work look it up, come back and we will talk. But I do enjoy helping the students.[/quote']
I am very appreciative of your posts, Esme, and I hope you never give up your efforts for us newbies/students. And yeah, sharing personal identifiers online is a big no no. (And a bit insane.)
Can't forget the infamous "is this the good pop up?" When there at least 50 threads asking the same thing on the first page. It's like they just want reassurance. Annoys me but I know it shouldn't. Lol
My mind is blown and overwhelmed by these posts. Surely they've been here long enough to have seen this same post over and over by now???? I haven't even taken the nclex yet, and I'm annoyed by this particular repeat.
Most of those posts are on the Student fora so you can avoid them pretty well if you don't go there. Agree, the NCLEX forum is almost entirely repetition, like texting between middle school students who all have the very same feelings about the very same test, and they just have to share it, OMG! OMG! The DRAMA! Once in a blue moon there's a question about how to think about a certain kind of question or how to prep more efficiently, and those I tend to drop in on. The rest make me grind my teeth. Oh, and the ones that say, "I failed NCLEX for the fifth time, what should I do?" Like, consider some other career? This reminds me, though, of a well-known factor in teaching. Every year you get students who don't know much, and you deal with the same questions year-in and year-out. You have two choices-- 1) derive satisfaction from helping yet another crop of newbies and hoping that a few will turn out to be awesome, thus making your day/week/year, or 2) say, "Why do I do the same thing every year? Am I nuts?" This is why older Scouts stop enjoying teaching the same old square knot after the second batch of new Scouts join in the years after them, and why instructors get grey hair. Me, I'm nuts, but even at the distance, with the electrons and the screens between us, I still get a kick out of seeing those little eyes light up with they get it, and make that one more step towards thinking like a nurse. And every once in a while, a Pedro Martinez rises up out of the minors, and we can take pride in having been a pitching coach in Single A. :) Well, that, and I like seeing those "Likes" add up at the bottom of my posts. :) We gotta have SOME positive feedback, even if it's insubstantial. And I like working with Esme, Kel, and the others who are so patient with these kids. :)[/quote']
Even when your responses bug me, or aren't what I like to hear, I still very much appreciate them, and I'm so glad there ARE people out there who do enjoy that "I get it!" moment because we need that. I mean really, really need that. Your enduring patience, and that of your colleagues and those who I get to work with, is what we need most. I know our questions and naïveté probably get annoying from time to time, but we hear you. Genuinely, we do. And the ones that get huffy because they don't like what they hear hopefully internalize what was said and mull over it a little and at least gain a tiny bit more wisdom.
....Maybe not, but I'm forever the optimist. ?
(And I liked that post for you.)
Crusty old batling?
I really want to be a crusty old batling. I might be too soft on the inside, though. Can there be a screening process for this?
Then there's my personal favorite: "I'm a convicted felon. Should I take out $80k in student loans to attend nursing school hoping that they'll let me take NCLEX when I'm done? And what schools admit convicted felons? Thanks! :) "
I don't get this AT ALL. Why in the world do these people even consider going through all of that work to be a nurse, KNOWING they might not even be able to get licensed???? Or better yet, why don't they know their state's BON can answer this question better than a bunch of random people across the interwebs?
First mention of "crusty old bats" came from That Guy on "The Mockery of Nursing" thread. Feb 14 '12 by That GuyQuote from grabonjI just registered for this site, and this is one of the first threads that I have read. It is quite entertaining, despite being steeped in broad generalizations about both "new" (per this thread, interpreted as “stupid”) and "experienced" (per this thread, interpreted as “mean and old”) nurses. The sense of community is underwhelming, but the quality of humor is above par. I am waiting for both sides to square off for a battle royale. “Nursarmageddon 2012” would certainly pull in the Pay-Per-View consumers. Which side do I join? I am able to spell and read, I do not have a DWI, I am a hopeful new nursing student pursuing a second career, with a reasonable degree of life experience, but will be an “old new” nurse upon graduation. Perhaps I should just referee? Thats because after awhile, you will notice that there is a certain algorithm for ridiculous posts. It starts off with the OP saying some story about how they went through school with a 4.0 with 13 kids, 7 jobs, no husband/wife while trying to destroy the one ring. Then they get on here and post stupid questions and this is where the split occurs. Either you get people to come in and coddle the person and blow rainbows up their skirt, or you get the people like me and most in this thread that get tired of these stupid questions and inject some light into the thread. This is where the next split occurs. Either you get the young newbies stating how mean and crusty the old nurses are. Or you get the old crusty bats that come in and say that the newbies have it easy/are in for a shock. Then it goes back and forth rinse and repeat until a Mod gets in a shuts it down because someone gets their butt hurt. Its fun to sit back and watch.
This was beautiful. No, really. A work of art.
Anyway, I've always learned that on message boards, you read. You learn the etiquette. You learn the atmosphere. You don't have an opinion for your first 500 posts. That way, you learn when to bite your tongue, and you learn when it's appropriate to be honest. Otherwise you end up just being rude to a bunch of people who otherwise could have been amazingly supportive and helpful. Message boards all have their own personality. Get to know it before you act like an @$$ hat.
Btw, I try my best to not bring homework questions here. I think I've only brought one?? An instructor was pushing me to use a nursing diagnosis that really didn't fit my patient's priorities or assessment. I went with my gut to go a different direction, and it went well. I hope that wasn't a repeat. I'm fairly certain it wasn't. The search function is amazing. The wealth of knowledge here is endless and I love that. If I google anything related to nursing, usually the first page of results is half filled with AN threads.
I hope that I have paid the respect that is due to all of you experienced nurses. Your guidance and insight is always very appreciated by me!
(By the length of this post, you all might be regretting me finding the ability to multi-quote ?)
ixchel, is there a "how to" thread for how to multi quote"? Sorry for getting off topic...
I do this hitting the quote button on the post I'd like to quote, and then cutting and pasting the opening code in brackets and the closing code to open and close each portion. Easy if you are doing multiple quotes from the same poster. If you are quoting multiple sources it would be a little more difficult because each member has his or her own "code." You can figure it out by looking at what pops up when you hit "quote."
Oh my G-d Emergent! Thank you for this thread. Really. I've been thinking of this for so long and it's been ruining my AN experience to scroll past all these useless, repetitive threads.
I bite my tongue often in fear of getting points, but I really want to someday tell them all what I think... Because, no, you will not pass that NCLEX the fifth time you take it! And if you do, someone should shut that down. 3 strikes and you're out is my vote.
Ok. Better now.
Oh wait, a special mention to sarahrnay: although I truly appreciate your candid opinions, did you ever consider that the person you're telling off online could be your boss?
SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN
4 Articles; 2,058 Posts
I almost had a stroke from the cuteness when it came up on my "baby bat" Google images search. I was like, "THAT'S IT!!!!"