The Internet has brought the spirit of global communication and collaboration to nurses and other healthcare professionals in ways never before believed possible. These resources are offered to expand your opportunities for discussion, reference, education and research.
Have you visited a nursing blog recently or maybe one oriented to medicine? Web logs, also called "blogs," are becoming and increasingly popular means for individuals to publish and communicate via the Web. At its simplest, a blog is an Internet application where the author can display information. What makes it different from a Web site is the frequent updating and provision for reader feedback in a Web log.
Often a collection of personal thoughts and links to Web sites of interest, a blog can be a bidirectional means of communication with applications in clinical, patient, and academic education. The Web Tools Newsletter at the City University of Hong Kong (http://webtools.cityu.edu.hk/news/newslett/edublogs.htm) devoted an entire issue to blogs in education.
I haven't found many healthcare-oriented blogs. One of the first I found is called http://doctom.com (http://www.doctom.com), authored by Dr Tom Ferguson. Also the author of The Ferguson Report (http://www.fergusonreport.com), Dr Ferguson has a special interest in consumer health informatics and encouraging communication between patient and physician about Internet resources in healthcare.
Peter Murray has a great Web log at http://quanta.blogspot.com/ called Quanta: the Nursing Informatics Web Log. Quanta describes itself as "a frequently-updated digest of nursing informatics news, views, events, and other miscellania. " It is a Web log with a team of authors. If you would like to contribute, there's a link on the site to e-mail Peter.
PsychCentral (http://psychcentral.com/openjournal/) has a psychology and mental health focus and is authored by John M. Grohol, PsyD.
Family Medicine Notes-Occasional Notes from a family physician (http://radio.weblogs.com/0100250/) is a collection of thoughts and links from Jacob Reider, MD, a family medicine physician.
How can you become part of the blogging community? Here are a few sites to start you off. BlogSpot (http://www.blogspot.com/), Pitas (http://www.pitas.com), and Xanga (http://www.xanga.com/) offer a free and easy way to become involved in Web publishing and Web journaling.
Communicate, collaborate, and educate!