This list of 50 up and coming nursing blogs worth reading were gathered from other popular nurse blogs’ blog lists. This list is categorized by currently updated blogs created in 2010 and in 2009, and each link is listed in alphabetical order within both years. We may have missed some great up and coming nursing blogs in this process, so feel free to share your popular picks with us.

2010

1. Frazzled_razzleRN: A wife and mother talks about her return to school to become a nurse.
2. Just Call Me Nurse…Eventually: A wife and mother decides to return to school to become a nurse.
3. Madness: tales of an emergency room nurse: This blog is about the adventures of a veteran nurse in an inner city ER.
4. Nurse Wannabe: An Australian woman begins her bachelor of nursing program in February 2011.
5. Nursebound: A former journalist goes back to school for nursing.
6. NurseXY: Just Nurse XY and his “Y chromosome afloat on the estrogen ocean that is the nursing field.”
7. Nursing & EDS! A 24-year-old with EDS has one more year of nursing school to go.
8. Nursing School the Accelerated Route: Follow the blog of a student in an accelerated BSN program.
9. R (etired) N: Difficult to believe that this RN is retired, as her topics focus on healthcare — especially for women.
10. Sam the RN: Sam, who prefers not to be called “that dude nurse,” blogs about the kind of thing that happens in a nurse’s life; all fiction, because of privacy laws.
11. The Doctor Stole My Stethoscope: Raquel is a nurse and mom who tries to do an above average job at both while appreciating the wit, wisdom, and absurdity around her.
12. The Medical RNinja: A third-year medical student and RN blogs about nursing, medicine and becoming a doctor.
13. The Nerdy Nurse: A wife and mother and self-proclaimed “nerdy nurse” writes about her experiences.
14. The Nursing Ethics Blog: Nancy Walton and Chris McDonald blog about nursing ethics, under the principle that ethics is central to the way nurses do their job.
15. The Student Nurse: Read the adventures of a student nurse who is embarking on a second career.

2009

16. A Nurse and Her Camera: A self-proclaimed “end of the line nurse who has fallen in love with her camera.”
17. Abilene Rob: A male nurse who stretches the truth just a bit in his “About Me” page spills his guts about his job.
18. Debbie Without Borders: A wife, mother, nurse and Christian, this woman blogs her nursing experiences and how they fit in her daily life.
19. Diaper Changes are NOT my Job: A recent graduate nurse blogs about the “kiddies, the adults that come with them, and other stuff” that occurs in the pediatric ward.
20. Drawing on Experience: Will draws this comic-blog depicting his daily life, begun in August of 2009 when he began nursing school. Many comics are about nursing, some are about his pug Goober.
21. Infusion Nurse Blog: An RN who is a certified registered nurse in infusion (CRNI) and who holds an MBA writes this blog.
22. jParadisi RN’s Blog: J. Paradisi is an artist and writer working as a Registered Nurse who blogs about nursing issues, nursing identity, and other topics.
23. Life In The ER a Nurse’s Perspective: ER Nurse Blog: An emergency room nurse “rants and raves” about her work.
24. LivingDeadNurse’s Psycho Ward: This blog is filled with “ramblings of an ER nurse, mother, biker, movie-goer” and more.
25. Male Nurse Anonymous: A (supposedly) male nurse writes about his career, with anonymity provided for everyone, including himself.
26. Mamatrauma: An new ER nurse working in a county hospital relays her stories as a “third-career nurse.”
27. New Nurse, In the Hood: Baby nurse in the ED surrounded by nursing homes “in the worst part of a big city. Consequentially, I get sworn at A LOT, and I’m growing up fast.”
28. NP Odyssey: An RN heads into a new career, as she goes back to school to become a nurse practitioner.
29. Nurse & Lawyer: Elizabeth and Amy are twins; Elizabeth is an RN in a cardiac ICU and Amy is a law student. They share their perspectives and debates with the world.
30. Nurse J: A male nurse who works in critical care writes this blog about his stories.
31. Nurse Me: A trauma/critical care nurse who works at a Level I trauma center writes about experiences in “It Hurts Here, USA.”
32. Off the Charts: Blog by the American Journal of Nursing. Recent posts include an article on needlestick injuries and one on the life cycle of nursing blogs.
33. Pee and Sympathy: True Stories from an RN: An RN shares stories weekly, creating a “bite-sized memoir.”
34. PinkyRN: An RN who is into crafts occasionally writes about her work — she’s been out of commission lately. Go find out why…
35. RN Chat: Since September, 2009, a blog and site for nurses to chat with other nurses via Twitter.
36. RN-tertainment: A blogger writes about the first year as an Emergency Department RN.
37. Rudimentary RN: This blogger writes about her career-change experience from medical editor to RN to (hopefully) CRNA.
38. STAT: Stories from a new grad ER nurse, “doctor friendly and HIPPA approved.”
39. Student Nurse Laura: A blog created by student nurse Laura to keep her organized in her classes as she ventures into the world of care.
40. Suzanne Gordon: This author, lecturer and patient advocate focuses on carework in her blog.
41. Taking the Scenic Drive: A pediatric ICU nurse in the Midwest studies for the MCAT to apply to medical school, but life sort of happens along the way…
42. The Intensive Art: This is the diary of a 30 year-old (male) ICU nurse on his way up the nursing ladder.
43. The Man-Nurse Diaries: A blog by a 30-year-old male nurse with four kids who works in trauma ICU.
44. The Millionaire Nurse: Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire? This blog teaches nurses how to build and grow wealth.
45. The Muse, RN: A blog by a wife, mother, RN, nurse educator, which she considers a “gift of news and commentary for her Nursing colleagues, young and old, past, present, and future.”
46. This is the story of a girl: A 20-year-old nursing student undergoes weight loss surgery on her way to becoming an RN.
47. Those Emergency Blues: A blog by an Emergency Department nurse who considers herself over-educated and over-certified and cynical because she is very skeptical about the system.
48. What a Nurse!!! Jackie is a 20-something nurse who blogs about all the crazy things that happen to her.
49. Who’s Life Is This, Anyways? A balancing act with school as a pre-nursing student, a husband and children, and the future for this blogger.
50. wife.mom.nurse: “Believer, Firewife, full-time mom, part-time L&D nurse, daughter, sister, friend, blogger.”

Course from MIT

1. Introduction to Biology: This course from MIT is basic biology.

Courses from Johns Hopkins

2. Introduction to Health Policy: This course from Johns Hopkins explores the basic issues in health policy and management.
3. Adolescent Health and Development: Another course from Johns Hopkins, this course covers the development of the adolescent body.
4. Epidemiology of Infectious Disease: This course from Johns Hopkins explores infectious disease epidemiology.
5. Health Issues for Aging Populations: This course from Johns Hopkins explores aging and health policy related to treating older persons.
6. Ethical Issues in Public Health: This course from Johns Hopkins explores ethics in healthcare.
7. Impact of Pandemic Influenza on Public Health: This course from Johns Hopkins explores the public impact of an influenza pandemic.
8. Environmental Health: This course from Johns Hopkins explores environmental concerns and the health problems associated with them.

Courses from Tufts

9. Human Growth and Development: Tufts University offers this course on how humans develop and grow.
10. Cardiovascular Pathophysiology: This course from Tufts offers an in depth look at the cardiovascular system.
11. Musculoskeletal Pathophysiology: This course from Tufts offers an in depth look at the human musculoskeletal system.
12. Renal Pathophysiology: Learn how the kidneys function and adapt to disease in this course from Tufts University.
13. Genetics: This course from Tufts covers basic human genetics, including how they contribute to disease.
14. Diabetes Mellitis: Diagnosis and Pathophysiology: This course from Tufts University explores diagnosing and treating diabetes, one of America’s most prevalent chronic diseases.

Course from Columbia University

15. America’s Battle for the Cure: The Culture and Politics of Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment: This course from Columbia University explores the politics and culture that surround breast cancer in the United States.

Course from Connexions

16. Images of Memorable Cases: 50 Years at the Bedside: This course from Connexions is a study in the art and science of medical diagnosis.

As baby boomers age, and the US rolls out universal healthcare, the demand for healthcare is growing, just as there is a shortage of healthcare professionals to provide that care.

The nurse practitioner is the perfect option to help bridge the gap. With their additional training and clinical experience, they can provide many of the services of doctors and become a family’s primary healthcare professional.

Nurse practitioners have great job opportunities ahead of them, particularly as more and more states allow them to go into private practice and become healthcare providers. Today, 28 states allow nurse practitioners to act as healthcare providers, and more states are on the way in order to ease their healthcare burdens.

However, there is currently a shortage of nurse practitioners, just as there is a shortage of other nursing professionals. If you’re already an RN, and have interest in becoming a nurse practitioner, there are many schools you can choose from and you’re almost certain to have a job waiting for you once your education and clinical experience is through. Choosing a career as a nurse practitioner can offer you a better salary, plenty of job satisfaction and plenty of job security.

1. College Scholarships.com: This website is developed with objective to help  out the college bound, graduate school bound and career bound students to all ages to get information about a wide variety of subjects for students help like financial aid,  free college  free college scholarship and financial aid searches, online degrees and online college programs.
2. Just Colleges: The objective of this website is to help a student to in his quest for   college that suits him/her best. Just college helps a student in his that objective as it is an interactive guide for individuals aspiring for higher education. It improves the way and manner by which a university recruits and enrolls students. It provides list of around 5,000 College Universities around the world to students. It provides in-depth profiles of hundred of colleges.
3. The Degree Experts: It is a unique platform that offers reliable and updated information on convenient and flexible form of education.   It works as link between some popular universities and some interested students by providing them with detailed information on the courses and degree programs as provided in area of the distance and online education. It also provides range of online programs including Bachelor’s, Master’s, Diploma and Doctorate courses as provided by the some top inline universities.
4. Degree Finders: This website that was founded in 1996 catering to the needs of distance education.   It is very helpful on important issues like locating and evaluating education institutions providing distance learning programs, accreditation of institutions.  It also keeps a stern view and eye over various fallacies existing with ‘diploma mills’ that risks distance learner over a longer period of time.
5. Top Education Guide: This website specializes in marketing handling and recruitment lead generation solutions for colleges, universities and career schools. Its services include Internet marketing and search marketing as to reach the America’s leading candidates looking for educational and professional growth.
6. Online Degree Advantage: The sole mission of online degree advantage is to help and assist and aspiring career professionals and career oriented students to find out the right education and experience   that let you achieve their career aspirations while maintaining the current career and personal lives.  It helps all, the career professional, aspiring students and working adults who need a higher education or degree that will work around their busy schedules to get an appropriate online degree.
7. OnlineDegreePrograms:  This is the website that fulfills and helps a student to achieve their higher education goals by providing them the list of best online schools with the best online programs. Having programs from the entertainment to communication to going with online business. The website accomplishes education need for all including full time employees, single parents, and working parents and all for online education programs. With the help of this website you can be one of those thousand people who are earning their associate, bachelor and master’s degree online in every industry from business to criminal justice.

1. The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulate a uniform set of standard for medical record privacy in the United States.  The HIPAA was started and regulated in United States in 2003. It applies only to the records kept and maintained by health care providers, health planners and the health clearinghouses. However, despite this much of protection a great deal of data remains covered and protected outside health care facilities and the files of health planner and most of the time is beyond the reach of HIPAA.
2. As far as sharing of medical records is concerned it is maintained and kept by a large number of people and organizations. First of the agencies that keep health a record is insurance companies that needs record before making or issues a policy or making a payment under an existing policy. Next agency to keep medical records is government agencies that require medical records for verifying claims of medicare, medical, social security disability and workers compensation. The Medical Information Bureau (MIB) is the next with its central database of medical information shared by insurance companies. There are about 15 million Americans and Canadians are on file in the MIB’s computers. IntelliScript and MedPoint are databases that report prescription drug purchase histories to insurance companies. Like the MIB reports, IntelliScript and MedPoint reports are used primarily when consumers are seeking private health, life or disability insurance. Employers do also for medical records of their employees though it is covered under provisions of HIPAA. And lastly your medical information to an extent is kept by medical information as to be passes on to the direct marketers.
3. Apart from HIPAA, in order to limit access of others to your medical records the provisions are as you can discuss your confidentiality concerns with your doctors. You can ask your health care provider to take care when photocopying portions of your medical records for others. Sometimes more than the necessary medical records get copied that are even more necessary than the insurance company and other health care provider.
4. Other than HIPAA, nearly half of the state laws let patients or their representatives to access medical records. Laws let health care facilities to charge a “reasonable” fee for copying records. In case you are getting treatment at a  federal medical facility, you have all the rights to get your data under the federal Privacy Act of 1974 (5 USC sec. 552a)
5. The 1996 federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandated the development of federal regulations to be adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The regulations were confirmed by the Secretary of DHHS in April 2001, and were effective April 14, 2003.

As for the family nurse practitioner, all that will be required will be to, either decide whether you want to complete the whole course at a go or you could as well choose to be a part time student. This type of program will be offering knowledge to those nurses who will be handling the health matters of the whole family. This program will equip this nurse with the necessary skills required to ensure that the health of both adults and children in a family is taken care of. This can as well be taken as a full time course as well but it may also be undertaken as a part time course.

As for the maternal nurse program, the nurse will be equipped with skills on how to go about handling matters that are related to maternal health, and this goes a little deeper into explaining how the new born is supposed to be taken care of health wise as well. Considering that this is a sensitive area of health, most of the nurses here will also be given some training on how to handle expectant women as well. Note that there are also some accreditation points that have to be awarded once a nurse has completed this program and that they also get high as the program becomes more complex.

For instance the accreditation points for a family nurse practitioner program is placed at forty six points, and this is due to the complexity of the program itself. All the above practitioner programs can, as mentioned earlier, be undertaken either through the usual complete full time enrollment or you could as well choose to take them online. There is usually no big difference, as when it comes to practicals you will be required to report to the nearest medical facility around you, where you will be required to carry out the exercise.

Most of these programs will as well lead to other diverse disciplines related to the nursing profession, and these will include advanced qualifications such as master’s degrees or even PhDs. But it is advisable that you first shop around for a reputable institution, as well as the one which will be friendly to your pocket.