So many of you are amazing people and nurses. The time you put in responding to posts on Allnurses really does make a difference.
BUT.
When people come here asking for advice on a situation, they are not looking for your opinion of them as a person or their behavior. You all know what threads I'm talking about.
It's one thing to point out that their behavior could potentially be dangerous to patients.
It's one thing to be honest and tell them that their future doesn't look too bright.
It's one thing to suggest they may find seeing a therapist very helpful.
It's another to tell them they are mentally ill, mock them RELENTLESSLY, or judge them. When you do this to your fellow nurses (that have just come to you for advice), you're worse than that poor, scared soul you FLAMED for thinking a drug abuser may have a bloodborne illness.
These posters are often simply desperate, scared, or just plain curious!
I know it's important to have a thick skin when you work in healthcare, and I sure as heck am not busting out the trigger-words bully†or NETY.†It's just that even in my CNA class, it was emphasized over and over that it's not our place to judge patients. Can't you afford the same courtesy to other nurses?
I'm generally a pretty quiet person, but I believe in standing up for other people. So I just had to put this out there.
I just realized we hijacked the crap outta this thread. I really need to stop doing that. You may not want to be BFFs after all. I'm a bad influence.
See, people often accuse others of thread hijacking, and I just don't see it. Conversations have a rhythm, take turns, and develop naturally, often into something totally different than what they started out being. It's just the nature of the beast. Have you ever retraced with someone, "How did we get to talking about this?" Sometimes the thread of topics you went through ends up looking crazy.
I'm not saying hijacking doesn't exist, I'm just saying it's yet another overused term.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I can't imagine it would come as any great shock to patients that nurses complain about them in private, or that some nurses secretly are contemptuous of certain patient populations. They know that people complain about other people behind their backs, after all.
I don't think nurses are considered the most trusted profession because they assume we're Pollyannas who never think mean thoughts about anyone. We're trusted because we're the ones at the bedside advocating for them. Which has nothing to do with what we might or might not say anonymously on an online message board.
I know when I was working, I would skip down the halls singing "La la, la la la..." while strewing flowers from a wicker basket and being followed by woodland creatures. Oh yeah, and the bluebird of happiness sat on my shoulder the whole time.
Isn't that how it is for everyone else in nursing?
Do you know GrnTea wrote the book on nursing diagnosis?
No, I mean, literally.... Wrote the book. Sit down, shut up, learn something. lol
No, literally. I did not write the NANDA-I book, although have contributed my on various diagnoses when asked, am on a NANDA-I committee (entirely volunteer, so no conflict of interest when I recommend the book), and have contributed to the next edition of a verrrrrry popular nursing diagnosis "handbook" even though I wish they did more to teach from the source (they paid me a bit for that, but not much and no ongoing royalties so I don't care if you buy it or not, so long as you get the NANDA-I too :) ).
I'm guessing scolding, histrionic, defensive, sarcastic, etc.
Whichever one of the those the poster finds annoying or distasteful.
You don't think people's personalities come through in their posts?
There are a few posters here whose personalities I find....grating....and I generally skip their posts.
Yes. Everyone has their things that they like and those they don't, of course. I'm a less is more kind of person....unless it really is necessary for long "I am the expert on this" messages, those are some I avoid...people who like to dazzle themselves. A sense of humor is fine....and I like that. I'm not super sensitive....but I don't have leathery skin either. I'm somewhere in the middle.
What really cracks me up is the fact that nurses are the most trusted professionals and you guys pat yourself on the back for that. I wonder how many of the people who were polled would feel if they knew that nurses in general have a lot of contempt for the people they treat. I mean, how many threads have there been regarding the subject of patients that annoy you. Drug seekers, obese, people who come to the ER for stupid reasons, family member who annoy you and so on.
Fallacy here: Nurses in general do not havea lot of contempt for the people they treat, any more than shopkeepers do for the members of the public they serve, or teachers do for students and parents, or the Coast Guard does for boaters. Which is to say, everybody runs into people at work who are annoying, stupid, wastefully self-destructive, or willfully careless, or who otherwise deserve some level of contempt. Not all our patients, customers, students, or others are like that.
And why not blow off a little steam in the company of other nurses who know exactly where you're coming from? You don't think your kids's teachers don't do that in their break room, or your insurance agent, your shoe repair guy, and your landscaper? Trust me, honey, they do.
And otherwise, as Dr. Phil says, most people would be astonished to learn how little other people think about them at all.
No, literally. I did not write the NANDA-I book, although have contributed my on various diagnoses when asked, am on a NANDA-I committee (entirely volunteer, so no conflict of interest when I recommend the book), and have contributed to the next edition of a verrrrrry popular nursing diagnosis "handbook" even though I wish they did more to teach from the source (they paid me a bit for that, but not much and no ongoing royalties so I don't care if you buy it or not, so long as you get the NANDA-I too :) ).
So, in other words....you have NO idea what you're talking about, then?
I know when I was working, I would skip down the halls singing "La la, la la la..." while strewing flower from a wicker basket and being followed by woodland creatures. Oh yeah, and the bluebird of happiness sat on my shoulder the whole time.
Isn't that how it is for everyone else in nursing?
RNsRWe, ASN, RN
3 Articles; 10,428 Posts
I know that I, personally, will never view that word in quite the same light again :)