I am an active member of the forum since May 2006. I really love this forum and it is quite addicting. It was founded on the year of 1998. Currently, it is the #1 nursing community for nurses at the same time the largest active online nursing forum. Allnurses has given me direction on my nursing education and now my nursing career. The people there relentlessly without a doubt answers your every query. They welcome everyone and has been very helpful from the start. It helps in motivating one in your chosen field in nursing. There are significant information that can be learned every day which only takes some few minutes to read.
The forum is a complete package; it has everything from jokes, scrubs, NCLEX, nursing specialty to nursing experiences. There are regional sub forums that specifically caters people according to their location. Like for every state in US, Philippines, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and UK. Everything that you can think of is all there. Although, you have to read first the previous posts since most of the queries has been discussed already. Remember also to follow the posting guidelines.
I would like to give thanks for the moderators in every sub forums there. Special shout out to Brian Short, RN, the founder of Allnurses.com. Mostly, all the moderators are working as RNs while investing their valuable time and effort in the forum during their spare time. If you are student nurse, RN, LPN/LVN, whether male or female, you might want to drop by the forum and let your voice be heard.
PS. I hope I could get a membership upgrade, anyone? I would be very thankful. =P
Thank you very much Brian. I am enjoying the benefits so far and glad that I’m one of the platinum members of AN. I will continue to spread the passion of nursing. 
Allnurses.com is a business. There is nothing inheritably wrong with that. Allnurses’ product is information. You see many threads with lots of information. That information is put there by the 293,689+ members. While on the site you are over run with ads and when someone clicks on one of those ads the owner collects money. He collects enough money that he doesn’t have to work a traditional nursing job and earns a very nice living. His job is running the website. Again, there’s nothing inheritably wrong with his way of earning a living. The problems comes in the following facts. The owner rarely makes an appearance on his website but he does have a staff of 38 volunteer moderators who do all of the work, they don’t get paid, but do reveal that at special times they occasionally receive an allnurses pen or pencil.
The site is heavily moderated by the volunteers. Members posts are frequently edited or completely removed. Entire threads disappear. There is a private messaging system available for the members yet they are read and altered by the owner and his volunteers. This is seriously unethical. They would say this does not occur but yet there is proof of it. When a member takes their grievances to the owner, either they receive no reply, or the reply is that the moderators have all of the control and he will not interfere with their decisions or the member is banned for life from the website.
One particular moderator knows nothing about being a CRNA yet she edits their correct information into incorrect information. The past president of the American Association for Nurse Anesthetists protested the inaccurate information and she was banned for life from the website. This moderator also handles nursing licensure information and is frequently told she is providing inaccurate information yet she continues to argue that she is correct. She typifies the protectionist forces working against us. She is an American nurse who finds that the nursing shortage suits her just fine and sees foreign nurses as a threat to her livelihood and frequently answers foreign educated nurses questions with sarcasm and suggests that their skills are not up to par with American nurses and that they should remain in their own country.
The owner and volunteer staff work hard to have the members believe that the site is all about them. All about Nursing. They work hard to have the members believe that they are doing them a huge favor because the website costs an enormous amount of money to run and maintain. Hogwash! That is a lie. It is not expensive to run such a website. Many other vBulletin forums of the same size are run by everyday people who have regular jobs and do not run any ads on their sites what-so-ever. Now those people truly do it for the members. On allnurses members must pay a yearly fee of $30 or $60 to have an avatar which costs the owner nothing. Also included in the membership fee is the right to post in the premium threads which are the threads everyone wants to be able to access and post in. If you don’t pay up you won’t be included. I have seen many other sites with ads but I have never seen a site that charges it’s members to have an avatar or where members have to pay to be equal to other members. I suggest that allnurses has seen it’s better day. The product is information and without the contributions, the owner can place all the ads he wants but eventually is going to lose business.
I am fully aware of the business side of Allnurses but I really don’t care as long as I enjoy exchanging information and ideas there. Honestly, the ads don’t bother me at all. It still looks clean and organized. Just don’t click the ads if you don’t want him to earn. If I were Brian, I would do the same if I have a forum. He has managed the site for couple of years now. The last time I checked, he has been visiting the site if not everyday, several times every week. So far all my messages were not edited in my private messages as I can see my original message when someone replies. The moderators that I came across have been helpful ever since and they have been true in almost all the facts they have been saying even though they are not from my country. If the moderators will edit the content of the thread they will inform you what rule was violated. I guess, they are doing this based on the policy that they have. However, the upgrade fee is quite expensive for a year, even for a nursing student. I really learn a lot from Allnurses. Good luck in your new nursing forum!
Dutchgirl has an axe to grind with Allnurses. She didn’t follow their terms of service, and got banned. She then started a crappy website by copying everything on the Allnurses site, from the software they use, to their posted TOS, to their feature buttons. It’s blatantly obvious. She trolls all over the internet, telling her tales of woe with Allnurses, and has already been chased off of Nurse.com for whining about AN all the time. One would think that if she had such a problem with AN, she wouldn’t be trying so hard to copy them, and wouldn’t be trying to poach their membership. Get over it already, and get a life. Take your meds. Most of us there don’t miss you. And please, please put a spellcheck feature on your crappy website, Dutchgirl. Your band of AN rejects need to at least appear to be able to put a sentence together, when they’re talking about pointless drivel.
Gemini,
Thanks for the blog post about AN! I am very glad to hear you enjoy your time at allnurses as most people do.
Yes, we have a few disgruntled members, they seem to think that spamming blog is fun.
PS, I hooked you up with a membership too, thanks again for your detailed blog.
I have been a memeber since 2003, until yesterday! I paid for a premium membership. I asked for help, information, about a DON position that I am qualified to take.
Instead I was told that the employees would hate me, that I had no business taking the DON position and finally I was BANNED!!
I got no warnings, no points no nothing!! Just an email telling me that my account had been closed!!
It breaks my heart to see a great site fall!! I used to be able to post and ask for help and get it. Now when people post they get lambasted, ridiculed, and banned!!
I LOVED Allnurses and told everyone I knew about the site. I even met one of the posters at the college we attended. AN got me through NS. When I needed advice r/t a job change, I got banned!!
Just so Brian and all knows, I have been a member of several other nursing sites, automotive sites, computer sites, etc under the same name.
I didn’t know that being a member of different forums was against TOS.
Brian, if you want to make a profit…go for it, but PLEASE return AN to the once glorious forum it used to be.
I miss all my friends over there.
Me Me…you are quite simply ignorant! You have no first hand knowledge of me, my life, or why I started my website. If you do not like my website then I suggest that you do not visit.
vBulletin is the premier forum software. There are thousands upon thousands of vBulletin websites and they all have the same crappy TOS, features and buttons, etc….apparently you have not done your homework before opening your big mouth.
If I am trolling all over the internet then you must be visiting the same sites, the difference is that I use the same ID wherever I go, I feel I must know you MeMe but you conceal who you are? And why is that? I think before making judgments about me you better get your own shit together.
I think this hatefulness against me for stating what I know to be true about AN is juvenile at best. AN may be able to censor their members words, but in America, I am free to voice my opinion. If someone chooses not to agree with me that is their right. I can take criticism. I appreciate it when it is offered constructively.
I am not competing with AN. I do not charge any membership fees nor do I have pop up ads, eBay ads, etc…I am paying for my website out of my own pocket. I am hardly competing. The purpose of my site is friendship, education, fun, discussions and whatever needs come up in the lives of my members. Nurses are free to join, free to leave, free to be on my site as well as any other site they wish to join. Their PM’s are private, they do not have to fear being banned for voicing their opinions, I do not have advertisers to keep happy, my site does not have to have the appearance of being politically correct. I don’t care if I have 150 members or 300,000 members. The members I do have are awesome compassionate human beings who support one another. I do not appreciate your senseless comments. I have never accused the AN members of posting pointless drivel or not being able to construct a proper sentence. I think that’s truly tacky. There are many many wonderful members on AN. Some I miss very much. Because I do not agree with the policies of the owner and the moderators DOES NOT negate the entire site. The members of AN are not the problem and for those who are happy, that’s great.
“please put a spellcheck (sic) feature on your crappy website”
That’s funny, because most of the articles posted in the articles/tutorials section of AN have really bad spelling and grammatical errors. One of the admins (Tweety) even had the word “administrator” spelled wrong in his profile. It has just been corrected.
I was surprised to learn recently that a very well-known and respected SCI RN was banned from AN for posting corrections to some misinformation re: SCI, and for posting a link to a SCI pt site.
AN does have some good points, but it is known all over the net to be one of the most heavily and inequitably moderated sites out there.
Allnurses.com was my introduction to sites specifically created for nurses. There were, and are, many genuine people who are willing to share your pain, and their knowledge. And you develop friendships.
BUT…
I have had my PMs read. I have had posts edited. I was banned simply because I sent the name of another site via PM to a couple of ppl I know. And it was not just Dutchgirls site I mentioned but a very good Australian nursing site.
We should be able to share our points of view with our friends. We should be able to share useful information and sites. Particularly via PM!
How do I know they read my PM? Because someone sent me the name of a site. The initial PM mentioned it. When I checked it again, it had been changed to http://www.allnurses.com IT HAD BEEN CHANGED…
I have received several comments trashing and bashing allnurses and other nursing sites. Mostly from one site that happened to link my site. My blog is not the place to air your concerns of others. You can post it to your own forum or directly at AN site. Futher comments which involve the same issue will go straight to the spam. Thank you.
Gemini Star,
I apoligize. I did not know this was a personal blog. If fact I don’t even know how I happened upon it. Your blog does not deserve to be trashed and bashed. Anyone who would like to speak to me about my site is certainly welcome to join and discuss. I’m glad you are happy at AN and I wish you all the best. There are many good people there and plenty of good information, I just don’t agree with the P&P’s.
I totally agree Gemini Star. There was no intention to offend. I thought this was a discussion re: AN. Sorry…
Gemini, so “MeMe” get’s a free pass on this eh? Guess we know which side your bread is buttered. PLATINUM!!! Congrats.
Gemini Star says:
Scroll up, DutchgirlRN can represent your team or forum against MeMe/AN. Thanks, but I am not fully using my platinum membership. Having said that, I can freely join any nursing forums that I want and would not matter how many forums would it be. I was voicing out my personal experiences regarding AN. Some may have good or bad experiences with any other forums. I will not tolerate more personal attacks but you can do so in other blogs.