Part of the value of AN is that it conveys the norms of the career we've all (or most of us, anyway) chosen to those who otherwise wouldn't have any way of finding out the norms. Nurses know that you don't call yourself a nurse unless you've been through an accredited program, passed the licensing exam, and hold a nursing license. But evidently some nursing schools don't cover that fact (or some posters were asleep when it was covered) and don't know that. And pre-nursing students wouldn't know unless someone told them. Someone told them right here on the site, and all anyone had to do was read the thread. That's awesome! That's a resource I could have benefitted greatly from when I was a lowly nursing student. Or a brand new nurse. Or even a not-so-new nurse who couldn't figure out why my co-workers hated me. (It's obvious now, but it wasn't then, and one post here would have cleared up the mystery for me pretty darned quick, had I the intelligence to pay attention.)
There are those who ask the question and there are hundreds more of those who can benefit from the answer, whether or not they themselves thought to ask the question. "Do I really have to drive to work in the snow?" "How do I survive working the night shift when I'm always tired?" "Why does my preceptor hate me?" "Fired -- now what?" All these burning questions -- and more -- are asked and answered on AN, and even if you didn't ask the question, reading through the answers may give you glimmers of insight you didn't know you needed. It's a valuable resource.
Like any profession, ours has norms. One of the toughest things about being a newbie is inadvertently stepping on the norms of your profession, and not realizing that you did so until your colleagues are ostracizing you. Reading AN can prevent some of that drama. Yes, you have to drive to work in the snow and it's unwise to insist to your manager that "it's not worth my life" to show up when you're scheduled. Yes, you really have to work your night shifts and your colleagues will be unimpressed when you insist that you're really too special to work nights, or that you shouldn't have to because it makes you miserable. Yes, hospitals do have IT departments scanning the social media for references to their institution or posts by their employees or potential employees. Now whether you've paid attention and internalized the advice is another story.
What I really cannot understand is why those who can benefit most from the free insights and advice offered on AN not only reject the information but angrily insist that it's incorrect or unimportant. I do know that it tells me a lot about that person, and what kind of an employee and a colleague they will make in the future. And, being the kind of person that I am, I'll admit that it can also lead to a helluva entertaining thread!
