I am sure that I am opening a pandoras box here but I will probably not be visiting this website much longer.
I have been a daily reader for several years and I have laughed, cried and been educated by what I have read on this forum.
It seems that for a several months now, the majority of opinions on issues and problems in nursing are being addressed by:
1. Nursing students...
2. Pre-nursing students...
3. I want to be a pre-nursing student...
4. I thought about becoming a nurse once...
5. My mother, sister, cousin, neighbor is a nurse...
6. I talked to a nurse in the hospital once...
7. I watch Mercy on TV...
8. I read a book about a nurse...
9. I met a nurse in the grocery store line
10. I once saw a photo of Florence Nightingale...
Well, you get the picture.
I have absolutely nothing against students (obviously we all started out that way) and they at least have a handle on some of this, but until you have worked in the TRENCHES, you CANNOT even IMAGINE what nursing is like as a profession!!!! The exteme highs and the extreme lows! The Humor and the Horror!
I do not have an issue with non nurses reading all of the posts however, I draw the line at expressing opinions as if you had a clue.
So to all of the layperson nurse " wanna bees" PLEASE do not post your advice and snide comments, especially in the vent threads. I have read "Oh, wow, I sure hope I don't think or act like that when I become a nurse".... or "oh wow, that nurse actually laughed at/told off /or disliked her patient-how awful !" ....so many times I now just skip these responses.
The vent threads are for experienced professionals who have "Been there and done that" to relate and to commiserate!!!
There is a forum for students, maybe there should be a forum for non medical/nursing persons.
After all, the official website states:
"A Nursing Community for Nurses" and 400,008 nurses talking about nursing...
In closing, Where oh where are all of you seasoned nurses? Are we just outnumbered? or is it because we are too exhausted from actually Working as a Nurse to post???????
My two cents, and yes, I have almost 20 years of experience. And Yes, I guess this is a VENT.
Sorry I forgot the number one thing that makes my blood boil, LPN'S ARE NOT BEING PHASED OUT, I don't care what your instructor told you! I do not need to be an RN to be considered a nursing professional. I HAVE MY OWN NURSING LICENSE, IT WAS ISSUED IN JULY OF 1980, and if I do something wrong, it will be that license that will be on the line, not yours! If we worked together, I would not be "working under your license"!!!!!!!!!! This phrase comes from nursing students doing clinicals in facilities with their instructors. Oh, and I am not a PN, I am an LPN. Alright, I'll go to the corner now and behave............not.
Specializes in ICU, PICU, School Nursing, Case Mgt.
Thanks you guys!!!
I was hoping for some responses like these but was afraid I would get some more of the blithering "you just don't understand you mean horrible nurse person"...
Ah yes, thank you for reminding me, I forgot how nauseous I got when I read some of the posts regarding the persons that were "picked on or lost jobs because they were too beautiful" GET OVER YOURSELVES! If your appearance had anything to do with losing your job/or the other nurses being mean it was because you spent too much time looking at yourself in the mirror and not doing your work...I find it difficult to believe that people who say things like that don't realize how superficial and shallow they sound and that they actualy think we are convinced that this is the reason for their professional problems.LOL.
My last two rants concern THE NON NURSING SHORTAGE.....I repeat...THERE IS NO NURSING SHORTAGE!!!
and the NCLEX. I think it is a joke...I wrote a long detailed post on my thoughts regarding the 72 questions or whatever it is now...I also took the 2 day test with 500 questions on it. I wont go into details as I dont like redundancy and my thoughts on the NCLEX is on another thread.
So, again, thanks you guys...I hope to "see" you on the forums for Actual NURSES!
I was hoping for some responses like these but was afraid I would get some more of the blithering "you just don't understand you mean horrible nurse person"...
I think all the kids are in bed by now. Just us old crabs.
I second what everyone else said, and a two day marathon with 3 months wait for the result would be a character building exercise these days. Nothing related to healing or life changes is instant, we need more nurses who can go for the long haul without expecting results in moments.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
This will be a good one. As a student I always went to what pertained to me and commented on what I knew not get up on my soap box and preach to those in the trenches. Unfortunately not everyone shares the same etiquette or common sense as others. Does make for an enertaining read though
I really think this is at the root of most of the problems. There have been many times when I spent time composing a reply to someone about something- and thankfully I heard a little voice inside, "pssssssst-- you don't know what the h*ll you're talking about. . .wanna reconsider?" Yeah. . . and with relief I hit that arrow back button.
Lately there have been some really long, long threads with a ton of responses, "just because I'm not a nurse yet doesn't mean I'm not entitled to have my own opinion" and "I think it's funny that nurses think you have to be a nurse to have an opinion about nurses". Really, :hdvwl: what perhaps seemed to them a teeny little synaptic jump from "thinking" to "posting" for some of them it should have been a wide gulf and for that reason it would have been better not to engage at all.
I don't mind sifting through the threads too much now, because my life is less stressful (read: empty-nest-syndrome) and there are quite a few nurses with 2 or 3 years of experience, retired nurses or even students I love to hear from because they speak from their experience or have personality traits I like. Which gets back to that concept of commenting on what you know.
I do feel bad when the overwhelming number of repeat question posts drown out the unique and specific questions, and I notice a question I can't answer head to the Niagra Falls of page 20 of the last 24 hours.
Now this is an informative thread. I've only been a member of Allnurses.com for about a year, but even in that time I have grown weary of the oh-so-young and oh-so-inexperienced taking over threads.
I found this site by Googling a nursing issue that I was struggling to understand at work. I stayed because I was fascinated by the amount of technical information that I was (re)learning. As I have posted in the past, my current position is a nice (for me) mixture of adminstrative duties and telephone contact with patients - I miss bedside nursing and I don't want to feel that I'm losing my knowledge base and skillset.
But that seems to have changed. I won't reiterate all that others of mentioned, but I haven't yet seen a post on this thread that I don't agree with.
I get ya. I get tired of going to the Critical Care specialty and only seeing "How can I get into ICU/ER". Lemme tell ya, there is no special way. There isn't a special way into ANY CAREER! Luck of the draw. be smart, be professional?? Ugh!
But on a good note, at least these prenursing/nurse aides care enough to go home, go to a thread and do some history. When I was in school, I never even thought to do it. Shows initiative. And maybe they can learn a thing or 2.
Just don't ask me how to get into nursing anymore! PLEASE
Perhaps if enough of the "seasoned nurses" complain, they could open a forum area for those of you with 10+ years of experience. I think that would be a wonderful way for you to share stories. What do you think? (I may be 40-ish, but I only have 1+ years as an RN, so I don't think I qualify for the "seasoned" designation )
My primary gripe with current threads is that more and more MA/CNA applicants/practitioners are posting here, under the assumption that their positions are classified as "nursing." And why shouldn't they since their employers are calling them nurses?
I struggle with answering politely, while attempting to educate the poster with the disparity between licensed nursing positions and assistive positions.
They are in nursing. Nursing is a broad field that includes licensed nurses as well as MAs, CNAs, ER Techs, Psych Techs, etc. Because their posts irriate you, is it possible that you notice them more? I rarely see them, and I just checked first few pages of the "General Nursing Forum" and saw very few relative to the threads and posts by nurses.
I think most of the problems with the mundane threads would be resolved if people just learned to use the "search" function on here.
Right? Someone wanted information on a school I think, I gave them the little info I could and suggested they do a search because I knew there were several recent threads asking that question. Their response to me was: "Oh i'm not on here that much and I don't want to waste my time browsing"
????
Ok....but you were the one who asked the question, you would have access to instant info if you did a search and clicked on the available links! It gets frustrating giving advice to people who just want a response to their question now.
To the OP, yeah, I honestly started out as a pre-student here tho...back in 2003 I think...lol, so I guess I can't complain too much. Have you ever gone to nurse central? Sometimes the seasoned nurses hang out there.
I am tired though of everything being about jobs here, jobs there, what can I do to get into CRNA school, etc etc. My favorite forums I think are the funny stories in the ER section.....
Right? Someone wanted information on a school I think, I gave them the little info I could and suggested they do a search because I knew there were several recent threads asking that question. Their response to me was: "Oh i'm not on here that much and I don't want to waste my time browsing"
????
Ok....but you were the one who asked the question, you would have access to instant info if you did a search and clicked on the available links! It gets frustrating giving advice to people who just want a response to their question now.
They don't want to waste their times browsing....but they want to waste everyone else's time rewriting the same stuff that has been written to death before.
The "I'm going to Nursing School ,and I want to get from there to travel nursing/CRNA/NP as quickly as possible, with cleaning up/touching as few patients as possible, so I can speedly get to the fun/perks/upper level/good money as rapidly as possible" posts also drive me nuts. There is a reason that those positions need experience, and one cannot hurry that.
We have obviously made a mistake by giving everything to everyone as quickly as possible, and raised a society that expects immediate gratification, with as little effort as possible. I wonder how many fewer people if we took away microwaves/takeout/fast food and they had to make meals the old way, without mixes, with having to plan and defrost everything and fix it themselves.
My two cents, and yes, I have almost 20 years of experience. And Yes, I guess this is a VENT.
realnursealso/LPN, LPN
783 Posts
Sorry I forgot the number one thing that makes my blood boil, LPN'S ARE NOT BEING PHASED OUT, I don't care what your instructor told you! I do not need to be an RN to be considered a nursing professional. I HAVE MY OWN NURSING LICENSE, IT WAS ISSUED IN JULY OF 1980, and if I do something wrong, it will be that license that will be on the line, not yours! If we worked together, I would not be "working under your license"!!!!!!!!!! This phrase comes from nursing students doing clinicals in facilities with their instructors. Oh, and I am not a PN, I am an LPN. Alright, I'll go to the corner now and behave............not.