Yesterday I confirmed what I’ve been mulling-over for a while: I’ll retire the meta4RN blog in September 2022.

It’s 9 years ago today sine I launched the whole meta4RN thing. I’m planning to do it for one more year, then put it to bed (I’m only a few years away from retirement, need to start the transition).
How it started: https://t.co/lAFARWGMpJ
How it’s going: https://t.co/HfuuKsLYg4

— Paul McNamara (@meta4RN) September 23, 2021

That will make a nice even ten years of nurse-blogging. I’m only a few years away from retirement, and need to start the transition. It’s time for me to use my non-work time doing more non-work stuff.

When I started the meta4RN thing I thought I’ll aim to be the most visible Australian mental health nurse on social media. I’m not sure, but I think I’ve probably achieved that. Even if I haven’t, it’s a remarkably unambitious target.

I’m amazed how many nurses – mental health nurses, in particular – self-censor themselves into silence on social media. I started the meta4RN blog in response to the prevailing “stop it or you’ll go blind” approach to social media by senior health and university people at the time. It’s incredible that nurses are the most trusted profession in Australia [source & source], are employed to go behind the curtains and help people who are having one of the worst days of their lives, but are not considered by some within our ranks not to be mature enough to go online. FFS.

I’m getting bored and tired pushing against the bricks. I’ll use the platform for the next 12 months, and then put meta4RN.com to bed. I haven’t really decided to do with the rest of the meta4RN social media portfolio yet, but I’ll work that out over the next year.

For the uninitiated, and so (hopefully) it with be swept-up by the Wayback Machine and Trove/National Library of Australia bots, below is a list of the other arms of the meta4RN social media portfolio.

Twitter @meta4RN

Facebook facebook.com/meta4RN

YouTube youtube.com/meta4RN

Instagram instagram.com/meta4RN

TikTok tiktok.com/@meta4RN

Prezi prezi.com

Wakelet wakelet.com/@metaRN

SlideShare slideshare.net/paulmcnamara

Reddit reddit.com/user/meta4RN

Tumblr meta4RN.tumblr.com

ResearchGate www.researchgate.net

Orcid orcid.org

LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/paulmc

LinkTree linktr.ee/meta4RN

It’s an unnecessarily over-the-top list. I’ve probably overdone the effort to demonstrate that there is an avenue for nurses to promote their profession and voice, should they – like me – get exasperated at being routinely forgotten or sidelined in the public conversation.

End of ‘Beginning of the End’

That’s it.

Just putting it out there so when I pull up stumps next year it comes as no surprise.

If you know of someone who might be interested in the not-so-lofty title of ‘most visible Australian mental health nurse on social media’ let them know that now is a good chance to pounce. 🙂

Paul McNamara, 25 September 2021

Short URL meta4RN.com/end