No matter your nursing education level, or what nursing program you attended, it always helps to have resources on hand to help you improve the level of care you provide your patients. From RN to BSN, it can be helpful to be able to call on a store of knowledge to remind you of what you know, find an effective treatment, or learn something new. Additionally, it can help to have the help and support of other nurses. If you are looking for good information, and for connection with other nurses, you can use these 50 web resources to accomplish what you would like to as a health care professional:
Nurse Forums and Communities
Get in touch with other nurses by becoming involved with nursing forums and communities. You can share your own thoughts and ideas, and learn from the real life experiences of others.
- allnurses.com: This nursing community includes a wide variety of forums, as well as news, information and even job postings. Learn about nursing programs and degrees, and interact with other nurses who can help you be better at what you do.
- Nurse.com: Visit the forums at the nursing community, and learn more about what you can do to improve your practice, as well as get some great help from fellow nurses.
- Nurse Forum: This forum from NurseTV offers a place for nurses to discuss issues related to the field and share knowledge and information.
- Nursing Voices: Get in touch with the global nursing community, learning new things, sharing experiences and getting good advice.
- We the Nurses: This community and forum provides a way for you to search for information of interest to you, and to find general help and advice.
- Ultimate Nurse: If you are interested in travel nursing, this forum is a great place to start.
- Nurse RN Jobs Forum: Looking for a job? This forum and community offers career advice, job help and listings.
- NursingCenter: Nurse community that offers news, forums and helpful articles. Connect with other nurses and health professionals.
- Nursing Link: This community and forum from Monster.com allows you to interact with other nurses, find jobs and get career advice.
- NurseConnect.com: As you might imagine, this is a place to connect with other nurses, share stories, and find helpful hints.
- Nurse Uncut: This is a great forum that offers you the chance to chat about nursing. Based in Australia, you can get an interesting look at nursing with a more global perspective.
- NurseLinkUp: A great social network for nurses looking to connect with others. Also offers job resources and news.
Professional Nursing Organizations
If you are interested in joining a professional nursing organization, or if you want to know about the latest issues, you can visit these web sites.
- American Nurses Association: This is the largest nursing organization in the U.S., and a powerful lobbying group.
- American Academy of Nurse Practitioners: If you are a nurse practitioner, this is a great organization to belong to.
- American Assembly for Men in Nursing: “Murses” can find some support and help with this organization.
- American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants: Legal nurse consultants can join this association.
- American Forensic Nurses: Find fellowship with other forensic nurses, and learn more about this fascinating field.
- American College of Nurse Midwives: This association is perfect for those who are interested in midwifery.
- American Psychiatric Nurses Association: If you are a psychiatric nurse, you can network and get good advice when you join this organization.
- Radiological Society of North America: Get help and advice, and networking opportunities, if you are involved as a nurse in radiology.
- Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association: If you are involved with hospice care and end-of-life palliative care, this organization might be helpful.
- National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners: Connect with others who are interested in helping children live healthy lives. Open to nurse practitioners.
- International Council of Nurses: Join with an international society of nurses, networking on a global scale with others who share your passion.
- International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care: Keep up with other nurses and nursing news surrounding cancer care around the world.
Creating Care Plans
As a nurse, it is important that you are able to create care plans and treatment plans. Here are some resources that can help you make better treatment plans, and provide better care to your patients.
- Virtual Nurse: This site provides an overview of the elements needed in nursing care plans, and provides samples.
- RN Central: Find sample nursing care plans for a number of different conditions and problems.
- Careplans.com: Learn more about nursing care plans, how to create them, and view samples.
- Nursing Crib: Get comprehensive information on creating care plans, and finding good samples of plans that have worked in the past.
- Comprehensive Nursing Care Plans: Two nurses provide helpful information on nursing plans, and other resources and worksheets.
- Wikipedia: If you want to read about how to put together a great nursing care plan, Wikipedia has great information.
- Transitional Care Planning: Learn how to put together an assessment of care, and a plan for treatment and intervention.
- eHow: Step by step instructions on putting together a perioperative nursing care plan.
- CareScribble: This site actually costs money, but it is a great resource for putting together care plans, including helping you with layout and content. There is a 15-day trial, so you can get the basic idea.
Reference Sites
If you want to know more about a condition, or if you are interested in learning about how to guide your patients through various medical issues, you can use these handy reference web sites, useful for research and finding quick answers.
- MedlinePlus: This is the health reference from the National Institutes of Health.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The government offers helpful information on a number of health and medical issues.
- MedicineNet.com: Doctors provide helpful knowledge about the body, diseases and conditions.
- WebMD: Get information about different conditions, and read up on ways to better treat patients.
- Medicine Online: Get health news and use this searchable medical encyclopedia to find answers to health questions.
- Mayo Clinic: This well known medical institution offers helpful insights and references.
- eMedicine: Medscape offers access to medical procedure information, and other useful information.
- Nursing Calculators: Use these to help you figure dosages.
- RXList: Find helpful information about drugs, dosing and interactions on this web site.
Case Studies and Journals
Helpful links to medical case studies and journals that can serve to help keep you up to date on the latest health and medical information.
- Medical References: The University of Maryland provides access to educational reports, case studies and peer reviewed articles.
- The American Journal of Nursing: Latest scholarly articles on nursing and nursing issues.
- The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing: The ANA offers insight into nursing issues.
- Directory of Open Access Journals: See a list of open access nursing journals from all over the world.
- Online Case Studies: The Department of Pathology at the University of Pittsburgh offers some interesting case studies.
- Pulmonary Case Studies: Interesting look at different case studies.
- Medical Simulations: Takes you through different simulations of medical conditions.
- Case Studies in Science: Interesting case studies, including those related to different aspects of medicine.
