Nurses often need inspiration to refuel their dedication to their career, and reading blogs is a great way to be inspired. It also helps introduce you to numerous untold stories of being a nurse as well as real experiences and the valuable insights gained from them. News and journals about the nursing practice are also helpful, especially if you want to stay updated about the latest trends in the nursing practice.
To help you get started with your reading spree, here is a list that features the top 100 nursing blogs. If you have a great nursing blog and you are not on this list, send us an email and we’ll check out your blog.
The Nursing Site
Why It Matters: The Nursing Site specializes in posting about the latest topics regarding the nursing profession, boasting a wealth of content available for multiple different audiences such as newly licensed nurses, student nurses, and even seasoned or veteran nurses.
Great Read: “Healthy Eating for Nurses Who Work Long Hours” is a great article for nurses who may be neglecting a healthy diet because of their long work hours or erratic schedules. It also talks about how nurses should also prioritize taking care of themselves in addition to taking care of others.
Nursing from Within with Elizabeth Scala
Why It Matters: Elizabeth Scala is a nurse who is confident in her knowledge regarding nurse burnout. She is also a Nurse’s Week online program host as well as a bestselling author who often partners with nursing schools and associations in order to help bring about a positive change in the nursing field.
Great Read: “The Physical Benefits of Positive Thinking” talks about how important it is for nurses to think positively and the various tangible benefits that could come as a result of that. Some examples of this are patient pill compliance, appreciative inquiry, and other general physical benefits such as lower stress levels and better cardiovascular health.
Correctional Nurse
Why It Matters: This nursing blog has a focus on Correctional Nursing, a specialty that deals with providing care for incarcerated patients in places such as jails or juvenile centers. It’s perfect for nurses who are interested in the topic or even nurses who are simply curious about correctional facilities and those who have had no prior exposure to correctional nursing.
Great Read: “Health Literacy and Patient Education Behind the Wall” describes what health literacy is as well as how it is needed more than ever before. It also explains the indicators that point to a prevalence of low health literacy and provides some quick tips on improving communication and comprehension in patients lacking these basic health literacy skills.
Nurse Nacole
Why It Matters: Nurse Nacole is a nursing blog that gives quick nursing tips on a variety of nursing topics every single day. Podcasts and regular articles are also posted every now and then which are helpful for aspiring nurses.
Great Read: “Why Am I Not Retaining This Information?” is a great article about retaining the swathes of information you need to learn in nursing school. It talks about the importance of engaging with information such as medications and diseases via active learning strategies rather than just reading on them.
Minding the Bedside
Why It Matters: Minding the Bedside specializes in both meditation and compassion, two important characteristics nurses should always aim to achieve and exhibit in their day-to-day tasks. The site boasts a meditation blog with countless articles on how exactly to meditate effectively and how to be compassionate in the workplace.
Great Read: “Compassion Doesn’t Have to Hurt, in Nursing or Otherwise” talks about how there’s actually no such thing as compassion fatigue, and that helping others actually helps make us happier. It then lists down some things to consider doing in order to keep being compassionate at the bedside.
Nurse Code
Why It Matters: This blog is run by one Nurse Beth, a nurse who works in acute care as a Staff Development Professional Specialist, a line of work that allows her to interact often with new nurses which she mentions she loves to do. A variety of nursing topics are featured on her blog.
Great Read: “5 Signs of a Toxic Workplace Environment” lists down the top 5 signs which may send some danger signals of your workplace potentially being a toxic one. Some examples include poor organization, morale, and lack of teamwork.
Donna Cardillo, NursePower!
Why It Matters: NursePower! is spearheaded by Donna Cardillo MA, RN, CSP, FAAN otherwise known as the Inspiration Nurse. NursePower! is one the blogs she runs that deals with many different topics related to nursing such as pursuing a career in nursing, the value of nurses, and even how the media influences how the public views nurses.
Great Read: “Celebrate Nursing – All Year Long!” is a Nurses Week celebration post which aims to suggest to the reader how to keep the ball rolling and celebrate nursing all year long, even after Nurses Week.
Nurse Turned Writer
Why It Matters: This blog deals with health and medical news and posts about topics both serious and not-so-serious. The blog focuses specifically on health and medical discussions, but lifestyle topics are also sometimes tackled as well. The writer is very straight and to-the-point which many readers may find easy to read.
Great Read: “Is the flu as scary as media stories make it out to be?” talks about the facts behind the flu and clears some of the most common misconceptions behind it. It also answers the question of why people even bother with a flu vaccine at all when there are so many different strains that are prevalent.
Emerging RN Leader
Why It Matters: Dr. Rose O. Sherman is the author of Emerging RN Leader, and the blog she runs is a personal blog that aims to reflect her ideas and thoughts regarding various medical topics, mostly focused on nursing leadership and career strategies for nursing. Her posts include evidence-based info sourced from her own work as well as from work of other researchers.
Great Read: “What Nurses Need from Their Leaders Now” talks about the various things nurses are struggling with due to current events and what exactly they need from their leaders in order to keep functioning efficiently and effectively as nurses.
The Balanced Nurse
Why It Matters: The Balanced Nurse is a nursing blog that is run by Nurse Eileen who aims to enrich the lives of her nurse readers by attempting to create change through awareness. She teaches rejuvenation via meditation and spending quality time with nature and travelling.
Great Read: “Boost Your Happiness Factor With Travel Nursing” explores how travel nursing is a great way to shake things up and change your usual routine while still gathering experience and learning new things that can actually help make you be a better nurse. It also talks about the various benefits of travel nursing such as extending your professional network and learning all about regional differences regarding nursing.
Nurse Blake
Why It Matters: Nurse Blake is a stylish nursing blog run by the aptly named Nurse Blake, a registered nurse who frequently posts tips on how to survive nursing school as well as several funny nursing-related articles.
Great Read: “10 Things to Know When Dating a Nurse” is an entertaining article that lists down the top ten things you should probably know when dating a nurse. Some funny examples include nurses often sharing crazy and graphic stories often and how coffee is a nurse’s best friend. There are also some cute examples such as nurses often being extremely caring.
Neonurse
Why It Matters: Neonurse Travels is a nursing blog that posts about staying healthy mentally and physically in nursing and how to cope with the many everyday stresses nurses are often subject to in their extremely busy and relentless line of work. Topics such as self-care and tips on staying healthy are prevalent.
Great Read: “Beyond the Bedside: Why Nurses Are Never Truly Off Duty” talks about how nurses are never truly off duty. Even when a nurse has clocked out, nurses still exhibit characteristics of being a nurse, like it or not, and this may actually not be such a bad thing. Assessing and listening, being informed and being prepared—these are things innate to nurses that they may not be necessarily able to turn off, and that’s not a bad thing at all!
Johns Hopkins Nursing
Why It Matters: John Hopkins Nursing is a nursing publication that deals with nurses and their endeavors in the areas of education, practice, scholarship, research, and national leadership. Entries are frequent and are very up-to-date on current happenings in the nursing world.
Great Read: “Nurses are the “Most Trusted Profession” for 18 Years in a Row” reiterates the fact that by 2019, nursing has been ranked #1 as the most trusted profession, cementing their place as being number one for 18 years in a row. The post congratulates nurses for being able to make sure patients are safe and providing quality patient care.
Rasmussen College Nursing Blog
Why It Matters: Rasmussen College is a Regionally accredited private college with 23 campuses found across different states in the United States, and this is the nursing blog hosted on the college’s official website. The blog talks about many different nursing topics relevant in the world today.
Great Read: “How Hard Is Nursing School? Students Tell All” talks about the various challenges one should expect when thinking about going to nursing school. It also talks about how it is worth it if you are willing to put in the time and effort in the short term in order to walk the path towards a rewarding career.
INQRI
Why It Matters: INQRI stands for “Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative”, an initiative that aims to understand and improve how nurses are an essential cog in the system of providing quality care to patients around the world. This is the blog that is run by this initiative.
Great Read: “Nurse Input and Leadership Needed in Health Care Design” talks about the value of considering the nurses’ point of view when it comes to health care design to maximize quality patient care.
ANS: Advances in Nursing Science Blog
Why It Matters: The aim of the ANS blog is to advance the development of nursing knowledge as well as to to put into practice various theoretical nursing components such as nursing research, theories, and philosophies. It aims to bring together works that have scholarly merit and also have global sustainability in mind.
Great Read: “Teaching Authentic Nursing Knowledge” talks about what exactly authentic nursing knowledge is and how to ensure that this knowledge is well taught to nursing students.
Strategies for Nursing Managers
Why It Matters: Strategies for Nursing Managers is a nursing website that focuses on tackling management challenges which new nurses may not be accustomed to facing or dealing with.
Great Read: “Let nurses challenge evidence-based practice” talks about how the best way to get nurses to embrace EBP (evidence-based practice) is to allow them to challenge it. By allowing nurses to challenge EBP, critical thinking is encouraged and practice thus aligns with evidence.
Daily Nurse
Why It Matters: The Daily Nurse describes itself as a nursing news, reviews, and career site. It features articles about current issues in nursing as well as various surveys and reports which aim to keep nurses updated with the current landscape of the profession.
Great Read: “Workplace Violence Against Nurses” details the statistics regarding workplace violence against nurses and is a great read for anyone curious about the current state of physical violence, verbal abuse, threats, or sexual harassment in the nurse workplace.
The Mindful Midwife
Why It Matters: This blog is written by a nurse-midwife who uses it to, in her words, reflect on learning, healing, mindfulness, and the sheer joy of being alive. Most of the entries talk about how to be positive and stay thankful in the midst of the struggles and hardships that come with being a nurse.
Great Read: “The Word Beyond Home” is one such entry that talks about being able to own all of the events of one’s life without shame and how important that is in being able to tell her stories as a nurse midwife.
According to Kateri
Why It Matters: Kateri’s blog is filled with creative narratives about the different issues faced by a PICU nurse based in New York City. Inspirational bible verses, poems, and quotes are also included in her posts.
Great Read: “Don’t Dismiss the Nursing Profession” talks about how often people mistake nurses as being “just nurses” when compared physicians as well as why it is a mistake to adopt this type of mindset.
Off The Charts
Why It Matters: Off The Charts is a blog produced by the American Journal of Nursing which is a premier nursing journal published monthly. It features great articles and journals on the latest trends in nursing.
Great Read: “Can We Ever Overcome Burnout in Nursing” discusses clinician burnout and how it is bad for nurses, physicians, and the patients. All three of its dimensions, namely, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of sense of professional efficacy contribute to a decrease in quality of care.
What Should We Call Nursing
Why It Matters: This blog is a refreshing break from all the chaos of a busy 12-hour shift. It features funny GIFs about common problems encountered in a normal shift. The posts are all very quirky and full of humor.
Great Read: “When We’re Ridiculously Understaffed and the Nursing Supervisor Runs Off to Try and Find an Extra Nurse” is hilarious, displaying the common occurrence of being left alone with the sharks. This stuff is just good.
Nurse Keith’s Digital Doorway
Why It Matters: The Digital Doorway offers reflections about nursing in general. The writer of the blog, known as “Nurse Keith”, is dedicated in coaching nurses and other healthcare professionals. He writes about the different issues nurses face everyday. He also lists great news, book reviews and events related to nursing.
Great Read: “Seven Traits of Effective Nurse Leaders” talks about how all nurses are leaders to some capacity, and this is very true. For those who are struggling with embodying this important aspect of nursing, Nurse Keith has listed down some of the most important traits effective nurse leaders should display such as respect, communication, critical thinking, and the drive to never stop learning.
Diary of a School Nurse
Why It Matters: This blog offers us a glimpse in the life of a school nurse. A small percentage of registered nurses enter this specialty and the blogger presents an interesting way of viewing this career as a priceless one. She shares her dedication in protecting the wellness of schoolchildren along with valuable stories and experiences from her own practice.
Great Read: “A New School Year… Now What?” is for all those school nurses who may need some advice in starting a new school year. It talks about tips like reviewing health folders and organizing your office.
Nursetopia
Why It Matters: Nursetopia features journals and timely topics about nursing. They also feature very well-made infographics and regular graphics which are included in some of their posts, helping you understand the topics they tackle through a more visual medium.
Great Read: “Add an Over-the-Door Gratitude Station to Change Your Work Home” features a very cute labelled graphic of a gratitude station for use in each work environment that has colorful pens, markers, stickers, and blank cards for the team to use. It’s not just for fun either, as gratitude can change an environment and people’s perspectives. It can even potentially help your co-workers get through the day, in turn helping your patients as well.
Healthy Workforce Institute
Why It Matters: A premier nursing blog written by Dr. Renee Thompson, it is focused on workplace bullying, nursing culture, and professional competence. Renee is a nurse, nurse educator, and nurse executive. She speaks on seminars that aim to tackle nurse-to-nurse bullying, clinical competence, effective communication and strategies to build a healthy workplace.
Great Read: “3 Common Challenges Healthcare Leaders are Facing During Crisis” lists down and elaborates on the common challenges healthcare leaders face during crisis and the role of the healthcare leader in reassuring their coworkers or even in validating their fears.
madness: tales of an emergency room nurse
Why It Matters: A blog created by an ER nurse, it explores the truth about entering the nursing profession. The blogger didn’t mention it as a calling but rather as a job to do. She is honest and straightforward in giving her own opinions. She also shares her views about the healthcare system in general.
Great Read: “How Nurses Cope With Being a Nurse” talks about the suffering, pain, loneliness, and death that nurses experience in their career and how to deal with all of these experiences and cope with the path you have chosen.
EDNurseasauras, Still in the Trenches
Why It Matters: TyRANTasauras Regina describes herself as an “old nurse” – she completed her BSN 34 years after finishing her diploma program. She works as an ER nurse and she shares her experiences working in the department. Her stories are funny and reflect the usual way of life in the ER.
Great Read: “ER Nurses Guide to the Universe” is a comprehensive telling of how to tell the truly sick from the non-sick all sourced from Regina’s personal experiences as a nurse who often finds herself working in the ER. From things such as lying, denial, and fabrication of symptoms, Regina talks about them all.
Theresa Brown, The NY Times Well Blog
Why It Matters: Theresa Brown writes amazing stories about being a nurse in an oncology floor. She shares her experiences in caring for cancer patients along with the common issues nurses encounter everyday like medical errors, life-saving decisions, patient confidentiality and many more.
Great Read: “One Nurse, One Patient” is an interesting story about how Theresa Brown came up with an important decision that could mean life or death for one of her critical patients. The way she narrates her experience is intense and full of important details.
At Your Cervix
Why It Matters: This is a unique blog made by a Certified Nurse-Midwife. She shares valuable information and experiences about being a CNM. She also shares her passion about birth arts.
Great Read: “What I wished I learned about in school” is a useful list for new CNMs. In this article, she discusses some of the essential things to learn before working as a full-time CNM.
R(etired)N
Why It Matters: This blog contains stories of a nurse battling with her own illness. She is a nurse even outside the workplace because she takes care of her family and friends. It’s amazing to read about her nursing journey as she takes care of herself at the same time.
Great Read: “It’s Gonna be a Long. Hot. Summer” talks about her personal experience with the Cancer Clinic and shows how important it is to be kind and reassure your patrons/patients when they feel like they have nowhere else to turn to. It’s also nice to read the happiness she felt when her melanoma case was finally being attended to.
Nurse Gail
Why It Matters: Gail Ingram writes informative articles about health, wellness, and nursing in general. She aims to educate not only her fellow nurses but also everyone concerned about their health. She is currently working with other nursing bloggers to prevent workplace bullying.
Great Read: “Beware of Internet Health Hype” talks about the dangers behind health and wellness articles published on the internet by journalists with no medical credentials to their name who advertise products that do not really work. She also talks about how sensationalist media is a detriment to healthcare as high ratings are used as the reason to publish such articles.
International Nurse Support
Why It Matters: This is a magazine-style blog where you can learn the hottest topics in international nursing. It also features great posts about caring for your wellness as a nurse including the importance of taking a vacation, time management and diet.
Great Read: “How Nurses Can Prioritize Self-Care” is an article that encourages nurses to take a look at their current physical, mental, and emotional health and take steps in order to improve them; it may be hard due to the business of a never-ending job and the burnout that comes from it, but self-care is necessary in order to help those around one’s self as well.
Travel Nursing Blogs
Why It Matters: This is a unique blog dedicated to travel nursing. It features great tips, question and answer portions, travel nurse company reviews and many more.
Great Read: “Travel Nurses and Patient Care” talks about how travel nursing exists not just so you can travel all over the world as a nurse but also for a patient-centered benefit. Travel nursing also takes the burden off of some of the more permanent nurses in the places you will be working at.
American Travel: Travel Nursing Blog
Why It Matters: The American Traveler’s Official Travel Nursing Blog is a place where they share the latest trends in both travel nursing and general healthcare. They offer many resources such as articles, photos, and videos which should be helpful for travel nurses.
Great Read: “7 Things NOT to Do on a Travel Nursing Assignment” is all about telling the reader some of the most important travel nursing mistakes to avoid doing when out on a travel job. Don’t assume, procrastinate, or panic are some examples of things to avoid doing!
Travel Bytes
Why It Matters: Travel Bytes is the official blog of ATHNA, the Americal Travel Health Nurses Association. It aims to set the standard for travel nursing professionals, boasting a variety of evidence-based content focused on travel health written by travel health professionals.
Great Read: “Gender Matters: Tips for Female Travelers” talks about maximizing safety and health as a female traveler. The post details facts on health and safety in a variety of categories such as general hygiene practices, constipation, or precautions for high altitudes.
Traveling NP
Why It Matters: Traveling NP’s main audience is travel nurse practitioners and is written by a travel nurse practitioner. However, the blog itself warns that while there is a wealth of content for RNs to read on the topic of travel nursing, much of it is written in consideration of nurse practitioners, such that things aren’t exactly the same between the two.
Great Read: “Complex Patients” is a layered post talking about the difficulties of handling certain troublesome patients and the necessary mental fortitude needed to handle them appropriately and with care.
All Things NP
Why It Matters: All Things NP is a nurse practitioner-focused blog run by Sophia, a nurse practitioner student who aims to make her blog a place to share all things related to an NP career. Posts range from school advice to life updates.
Great Read: “Last Day of Clinical” has Sophia excited on her last week of her clinical rotations as an NP student. In it, she shares some of the most valuable things she’s learned from an NP who acted as her role model who’s imparted to her some unforgettable lessons.
Straight A Nursing
Why It Matters: This is an online resource that boasts of nursing content centered on providing materials to aid nursing students or aspiring nursing students in their education. Straight A Nursing is the nursing blog for the academically inclined. Here you’ll find nursing articles, study guides, and even podcasts available to everybody.
Great Read: “Nursing school time management tips” says that time management is one of the biggest challenges in nursing school. Some of the go-to tips are to make comprehensive lists of things to do for each week, remove anything that may distract you too much from studying, and adapting a “one-and-done” approach.
Sincerely, Angie
Why It Matters: Sincerely, Angie endeavors to inspire its readers by sharing the knowledge the writer has amassed during her career in healthcare. She believes that her career is a journey of learning that lasts for a lifetime, and that wellness is a pursuit of balancing the needs of both one’s mind and one’s body in the midst of balancing one’s life and career.
Great Read: “Finding Balance” is a great read about attempting to find your own personal balance. It talks about introspection as a tool to pinpoint what it takes for you to feel full and happy. If you cannot take care of your own mind and body, how can you expect to reach one’s full potential in a field that is dedicated to caring for others?
Nurse on the Run
Why It Matters: Nurse on the Run is run by Susan, a marathoner and burn unit nurse who posts mostly about marathon running. She also talks about her nursing experiences and shares tips for new nurses.
Great Read: “2017 Nurses Week: Advice for Nursing Students and New Nurses” offers many tips and words of wisdom to all those new nurses or nursing students out there.
Yoga Nurse
Why It Matters: YogaNurse is a nursing site and blog that offers a wide display of solutions for nurses who are nearing their limit when it comes to stress, burnout, and physical and mental exhaustion. The site presents Yoga Nursing which implements yoga with the science of modern nursing to relieve stress, pain, and anxiety.
Great Read: “Sculpting Your Brain With Yoga” talks about how the brain can actually be molded like plastic; this then means that anxiety can be healed with some mindful practice of facing one’s fears and coming to terms with who you are.
The Bossy Nurse
Why It Matters: The Bossy Nurse is a blog run by Marsha who describes herself as a lifestyle design strategist for nurses who are attempting to shake off their burnout, follow their dreams, and earn more money through developing their career smartly.
Great Read: “Helpful Resources for Nurses Starting a Business” is a great post that takes a look at some fantastic resources for nurses wanting to start their own business. It also provides helpful tips regarding competition, reaching out, and listening more for the purpose of growing one’s business.
The Nursing Ethics Blog
Why It Matters: As its name suggests, this blog is dedicated to nursing ethics. Everything you need to know about practicing within the scope of nursing ethics is tackled in this blog.
Great Read: “Ethics of Triage” shows the close relationship between nursing skills and ethical decision-making by presenting a challenge to the readers. This is in the form of deciding which patient among four examples should be attended to first and why. It then gives an example of how an experienced ER nurse should order these four patients in terms of priority.
Call Lights Magazine
Why It Matters: This is a magazine-style blog enriched with artwork related to nursing. Everything is colorful and interesting to read. The blog was started by Julianna Paradisi, an award-winning artist, writer, oncology nurse and cancer survivor.
Great Read: “What To Do If You Accidentally Forget Your Nursing Shift” is one of the blog’s Nurse Lifestyle posts that talks about the steps you should take should you ever find yourself unwittingly forgetting about your nursing shift and being late for work.
Crzegrl
Why It Matters: Emily Bennett, a flight nurse, blogs about her adventures in her everyday work and offers readers a glimpse of what it’s like to be a flight nurse nowadays. It’s a great blog to visit for anyone interested in the field of flight nursing
Great Read: “Tell Me About Flight Nursing” is a post by Emily that gives an overview on her work as a flight nurse, such as the credentials and years of experience necessary before being hired as a flight nurse, as well as the typical schedule and procedures a flight nurse goes through during a flight.
Hospice Diary
Why It Matters: Hospice Diary is run by Amy Getter, a hospice nurse who tackles delicate topics. This includes the use of narcotics in hospice care and her many, many experiences with ill and dying patients from when she was a new student nurse up to the present. She also talks about love and the beauty of the human spirit in the face of these challenges.
Great Read: “Never Give Up” is Amy addressing her concerns over the prevalence of the idea that hospice care requires “giving up” on a patient. She argues that both palliative care and hospice care are both integral parts of healthcare and that they should not be pitted against each other with the sole difference being the concept of “giving up”.
The Nurse Teacher
Why It Matters: This is a blog created by a nurse who is also involved in clinical teaching. She shares her personal experiences in her work, as well as when she was starting out as a nurse. The blog explores the norms that nurses are expected to follow when working in a hospital and the things you should expect during a normal day at the ward.
Great Read: “Secrets of an ICU Nurse” is a comprehensive article about the responsibilities of an ICU nurse and what being an ICU nurse exactly entails. It also talks about how much autonomy is practiced by ICU nurses and how you must always be calm under pressure.
The National Nurse for Public Health
Why It Matters: The latest news, journals and trends in the world of nursing across the United States are posted in this blog. Usual topics include legislation related to the welfare of nurses in different states. You can also learn more about public health nursing through this blog.
Great Read: “Prevention Is the Key to Wellness” is a post that emphasizes the all too important idea that prevention is the key to wellness and how nurse leaders have a job to echo this principle to the masses—that many diseases and illnesses are avoidable simply by avoiding smoking and tobacco use, as well as ensuring one follows a healthy diet and gets sufficient exercise.
Infusion Nurse Blog
Why It Matters: This blog is dedicated to IV therapy, vascular access and infusion nursing. You can learn valuable tips from the various discussions posted in the blog. They even put out many appreciation posts for nurses all over the globe.
Great Read: “Why Re-use a Syringe?” is a hilarious post featuring content that vehemently disagrees with the title. It explains that reusing disposable syringes is essentially the same as harming a patient and is a poor practice that must be discouraged at all costs and never be done under any circumstance.
JParadisi RN’s Blog
Why It Matters: This is another blog made by Julianna, the nurse behind the popular blog “The Adventures of Nurse Nikki”. It revolves around nursing, art, humanity, and science. She makes great artworks that she regularly posts on this blog, which correlates to her opinions about nursing.
Great Read: “Of Med Errors and Brain Farts” is all about her trying to cope with what she thought was a medical error she had performed. She then talks about how patient safety should be the first thing on your mind and that everyone makes mistakes.
Write Along With Me
Why It Matters: This is a blog made by a nurse-turned-instructor. After working in the nursing field for nearly forty years, she decided to take writing seriously in 2000. Her many years of experience as a nurse allows her to make blog posts with many valuable insights.
Great Read: In “Changes in Nursing Since I Retired”, she talks about the things that have changed since she retired as a nurse, such as gloves being worn pretty much all the time, computerized charting, nurse practitioners as hospitalists, and being discharged ambulatory.
Meta4RN
Why It Matters: This blog is part of an online portfolio made by Paul McNamara, a dedicated nurse and educator. He posts a variety of topics about nursing education which nurses will find valuable.
Great Read: “Mental State Examination: Looking, Listening and Asking” talks about how incorporating mental state examinations can be a little intimidating at the start, but is a good habit to always perform on all of patients, regardless if they were diagnosed with a mental illness or not.
Kmareka
Why It Matters: Kmareka, a blog owned by a nurse and social worker, is all about nursing trends, community work, and general health.
Great Read: “Hope on Mental Health, With an Unusual Funding Model Inside Philanthropy: Fundraising Intelligence” talks about how mental health is a part of healthcare that has many shortcomings and unmet needs, as well as how despite a higher potential for improving this sector is now present, there is still a lack of funding from the government.
Nurseables
Why It Matters: Nurseables is a blog filled with stories made for nurses and nursing students. Common topics include medical and nursing facts told in a funny way. Nurses can definitely relate to the stories as everything is based on real-life events.
Great Read: “Entering The TwiNurse Zone – What Happens When The Nurse Turns Patient” is an interesting article that talks about what may happen once the nurse becomes the patient. Is healthcare management more difficult when your patient is also a nurse? The article mentions great points that answer this question.
Nursing Stories – Marianna Crane
Why It Matters: Written by Marianna Crane, this blog is composed of real-life stories about working as a nurse. Marianna personally narrates her notable experiences and opinions about the status of healthcare system in the US. She clearly makes her point in each nursing issue she tackles.
Great Read: “Nurses Transform Lives” talks about how nurses should realize the positive impact they have on people’s lives, how they should remind themselves that their work as a nurse has the power to be quite literally life-changing for so many patients and that the difference nurses make is not a small one.
This Nurse Wonders
Why It Matters: Amanda Anderson is a registered nurse that also blogs about nursing life. Notable for her style of blogging, she explores existing misconceptions and stereotypes among nurses. She hopes many people are able to relate with the things she writes.
Great Read: “I’m a Nurse, Not a Caregiver: Defining the Difference” deals with what differentiates the things that nurses do with those of caregivers. It presents the most appropriate way of introducing oneself as a nurse to your patient and how differently patients might see nurses if they are aware of all the things that nurses are tasked to do.
Stefan The Nurse
Why It Matters: Stefan provides tips so nurses who are also working in critical care areas can learn from the common mistakes of nurses he’s already observed. With 16 years of experience in critical care and anesthetic nursing, Stefan knows what he’s talking about.
Great Read: “Every Day is R U OK? Day” has Stefan discussing about nurses and their emotional capacities—that no matter how high you think your own emotional capacity is, you might never know that you need care or help yourself until someone asks you “R U OK?” and about how you can ask this question to others who may need help as well.
Rhonda Wilson MHN
Why It Matters: Rhonda Wilson is a rural mental health nurse. In her blog, she answers questions commonly asked about rural mental health nursing and why she focuses her efforts in rural and regional health. She also talks about her projects and adventures working not only as a rural mental health nurse but also as a clinician, researcher, and teacher in her community.
Great Read: “Rural & Regional Health: I’m not lost!” is an eye-opening article about Rhonda’s experience in Bodø, Norway where she was asked by a colleague if she was in the right place. She says in her blog post that it is her wish to make impactful and meaningful contributions to the places who need it the most. For her, the most inconvenient places to reach are the right places to be and the most inconvenienced people are the right people for her to reach out to.
RehabRN
Why It Matters: Created by a registered nurse working in the field of rehab nursing, this blog contains posts about the latest news and issues in the nursing world nowadays. The blogger became an educator recently and her adventures in entering the teaching profession are really enlightening.
Great Read: “Nurses just do it” talks about the importance of care, and how it is often easy for nurses to have care at the top of their task lists for the day. It talks about the importance of seeing one’s patients as people and that when nurses are assigned to patients, they are taking care of actual, real people, and that nursing entails both the work and the care.
Our Front Door
Why It Matters: A blog full of emotions, Our Front Door will help you see what it’s really like to work as an ER nurse. Melina has a wonderful way of telling her experiences, views and opinions. There’s always something to learn in each of her post.
Great Read: “What Led Me Here” is an amazing story about the tragic incident that led Melina to pursue emergency nursing. It talks about all the events in her life that has led to who she is now, a mother and an emergency nurse, as she knows all too well the feeling of those who are victims of a devastating accident. According to Melina, while it is easy to feel overworked and underappreciated as a nurse, it is important to remember that every person you take care of has a story.
Nurse Anesthetist
Why It Matters: Nurse Anesthetist deals with all things anesthesia. Topics related to nurse anesthesia are covered in this blog. If you are planning to be a nurse anesthetist, reading through the posts of this blog will help you understand the field more as there are a variety of lengthy and comprehensive blog posts available to read.
Great Read: “The Anesthesia Machine Check” tries to remind all Anesthesia providers to never assume in their line of work and how the provider is the one responsible for a complete and thorough machine check out. Many providers assume their techs have done the job, but it is crucial to be thorough as it is always the patient that pays the biggest price for any mistakes or malfunctions. This provides a lesson that is relevant in other fields as well.
Spots On Nursing
Why It Matters: With more than thirty years of experience in the nursing field, the blogger shares her opinions about the latest news in nursing. The posts are as entertaining as they are informative.
Great Read: “Should You Speak Up?” gives the reader some tips on what to do when faced with a situation where you know there’s something wrong but aren’t sure if you should speak up about it. While the nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, it is also reasonable to be wary of any backlash or retaliation, so staying calm and taking the steps to protect oneself first by consulting with professionals or asking for advice are the right moves to take.
Science of Caring
Why It Matters: The dean of the school of nursing in University of California San Francisco (UCSF) created this blog so nursing students can be updated with the latest news and trends in nursing. The posts are rich with information especially about the latest reports on different health issues in the community nowadays.
Great Read: “Shobe Lectures Show the Value of Bioethics” is a comprehensive article on the value of knowing bioethics and learning how to discern the right things to do when faced with certain ethically difficult situations or decisions such as when the family of the patient, for example, clashes with the beliefs of the nurses.
Nursing @ Simmons
Why It Matters: This is the official blog of Simmons School of Nursing and Health Sciences. The posts are all aimed towards educating those who want to pursue nursing. Frequently asked questions about entering the school of nursing are also tackled in the posts.
Great Read: “Tips for Aspiring Nurse Leaders” contains an interview with Rankin and Stokes, two professional RNs who also have several leadership roles, wherein they are asked about what inspired them to pursue leadership roles, in addition to nursing, and also the characteristics that make for the most effective nurse leaders.
The Nurse Practitioner’s Place
Why It Matters: Created by an FNP, this blog focuses on the different issues faced by nurse practitioners. If you are considering becoming a nurse practitioner, this blog offers articles that will help you understand this specialty more.
Great Read: “Ramblings of A Nurse Practitioner” is all about the musings of the author on several thought-provoking thoughts that come up in his mind as a nurse practitioner, such as how nurses sacrifice so that others can be healthier and how sometimes it’s hard to lose someone you’ve been caring for when you’ve given it all you could to save them.
Nurse Practitioner Business Owner
Why It Matters: This is a beautifully designed blog for nurse practitioners. It was created so nurse practitioners in private or independent practice can connect, share resources and support each other throughout their careers.
Great Read: “Seven Things You Can Do This Week To Bring Patients Into Your Practice” is composed of several tips that you can use in trying to bring in a steady flow of patients into your practice. It mentions that even established practices sometimes have difficulties in accomplishing this and seven tips you can do yourself to maximize your flow of patients.
Nurse Barb
Why It Matters: Nurse Barb works as a nurse practitioner. She loves providing her friends, families and colleagues with health advice. This is the reason why she started this blog – so she could share her passion in helping other people understand the importance of good health.
Great Read: “Hydration Nation!” is a general wellness blog post that stresses the importance of water in our lives. It enumerates the symptoms of dehydration in infants, young children, and adults. It also offers tips for staying hydrated as either a regular person or an athlete.
The Days When I’m Not A Nurse
Why It Matters: This is a neat-looking blog made by a nurse who loves to blog about health and lifestyle. She also loves to do reviews of different things nurses will find helpful like compression socks, nursing shoes, scrubs and many more. She often offers giveaways and coupons for her frequent readers.
Great Read: “Life After NCLEX: Continuing Education as a Nurse” has Anna talking about how the learning has only begun for both her and the reader. She explains that it is imperative to maintain one’s education and to stay up-to-date with the latest happenings in one’s practice. She also stresses the importance of “lifelong learning”.
Did I REALLY sign up for this??
Why It Matters: This blog is made by a nursing student who is now close to entering the nursing workforce. She shares her struggles in juggling her studies with her role as a mother to her teenage kids. The blog is filled with pictures from her everyday experiences as a nursing student.
Great Read: In “How Will I Know?,” the blogger shares her concerns about her career path after graduation, giving voice to other students facing a similar situation.
Confident Voices in Healthcare
Why It Matters: Confident Voices in Healthcare is a blog made not just for nurses but for other healthcare professionals as well. The blog lists interesting topics about the healthcare system nowadays. It is being maintained by Beth Boynton, a registered nurse with an MS consulting degree.
Great Read: “7 Reasons Patients Forego Seeing Their Doctors and Specialists is an interesting article talking about several reasons why patients decide not to go to their doctors or any other specialists when they need to. Reasons such as money, inconvenience, and fear of the results are discussed.
ER Nurses Blog
Why It Matters: Made by an ER nurse, this blog presents commonly encountered cases in the ER department. When working at the ER, the blogger reminds that you should always expect the unexpected.
Great Read: “Burnout – From the ER and Beyond, Healthcare Workers at Risk” presents the startling reality of burnout and how this reality is unfortunately often ignored by many workplaces when they should be trying to care for their employees and be actively attempting to prevent overwork in their culture.
Health Care Renewal
Why It Matters: Maintained by several bloggers, this blog is about nursing and the healthcare system in general, mainly discussing topics wherein health care’s core values are threatened by things like corruption or abuse of power. It is also very informative, giving you updates about the latest innovations in today’s healthcare system.
Great Read: “How to Challenge Health Care Corruption Under a Corrupt Regime?” talks about considering how one can challenge the corruption of the health care system under a certain administration that is permeated by a corrupt regime.
On Call RN
Why It Matters: An ICU nurse posts about her adventures in the Intensive Care Unit of a government hospital. Her posts are entertaining to read as she is also a mother who has a love for photography.
Great Read: “To My Fellow Nurses” is a Nurses’ Week blog post turned heartfelt letter to nurses around the world about how she has thought about quitting nursing many times before but in the end recognizes how being a nurse is a meaningful existence.
“Your co-workers need you, your patients need you, their families need you and this world would be a lesser place without a nurse like you.”
10 Centimeters and Beyond
Why It Matters: Made by a night shift labor and delivery nurse in Midwest US, this blog is about the author’s experiences as a nurse who also have to overcome the ups and downs of motherhood. She also writes about what you should expect in a labor and delivery unit.
Great Read: “Skin to Skin” is a post about a protocol in labor and delivery care that was only being newly implemented at the time. A mother and her baby are encouraged to have skin contact right after delivery. This is considered helpful in improving APGAR scores and in enhancing the baby’s thermoregulation. It is a practice that is highly encouraged to be implemented in healthcare facilities around the globe.
Adventures of a PICU Nurse Practitioner
Why It Matters: As a former bedside nurse, Dana is a PICU Nurse Practitioner who shares her experiences in pursuing a new career along with discussing the various adjustments she needed to make in her lifestyle after becoming a nurse practitioner.
Great Read: “Have You Examined the Patient!?” is a hilarious post about how Dana essentially one-upped a particularly obstinate and stubborn physician who previously dismissed her report. She had concerns about a four-year-old girl who was malnourished and was in need of a G-Tube for feedings. Turns out she was right as the doctor hadn’t actually examined the patient yet!
Innovative Nurse
Why It Matters: Innovative Nurse is all about business, social media, and technology for nurses. Independent nurse practitioner, clinicians and educators will find this blog extremely helpful.
Great Read: “Nurses Week: 5 Notable Nurses In History” is a post that celebrates nurse’s week. It’s amazing to read about the most notable nurses in history and realize how noble the nursing profession is.
The Gypsy Nurse
Why It Matters: This is a travel nursing blog and community dedicated for nurses and other medical professionals, a place where travel nurses can thrive and find informative blog posts. The titular Gypsy Nurse who is currently assigned in Liberia blogs about her experiences in pursuing travel nursing.
Great Read: “Travel Nurse Guide Introduction” is a great place to start and get your bearings if you want to start getting into travel nursing. They’ve broken down this daunting endeavor into three categories—namely: assessment, planning, and implementation. Each of these categories hosts several steps with an article from their website each!
New Nurse Success Shop
Why It Matters: In this blog, Renee Thompson, a nurse clinician, speaker, and educator writes about how to be successful in your specialty of choice. She also shares several tips on how to deal with the various problems she’s observed that nurses most commonly face in their units.
Great Read: Nursing Practice Tip: Documentation “Never” Events! is a list of tips about proper nursing documentation. This involves taking various measures and precautions such as never charting in advance, never documenting something you didn’t actually do, and never venting your frustrations by messing with the patients record.
Frugal Nurse
Why It Matters: This blog was started in response to the writer’s bad experience with over-treatment in the current healthcare system, which led to her husband having to take medications for the rest of his life over a surgery that didn’t need to happen in the first place. She started this blog in the hopes of helping her readers navigate a broken healthcare system and to impart her motto: “Be informed. Stay healthy. Save money.”
Great Read: “Save your money: Vitamin C and zinc don’t prevent colds“ is an important explanation on why taking large doses of Vitamin C and zinc doesn’t actually prevent you from getting a cold backed by 60 years of clinical studies. Rather, the best way to prevent getting a cold is actually proper hand washing!
Nurse Together
Why It Matters: Nurse Together is full of informative articles made especially to aid the global community of nurses by providing up-to-date info on nursing and healthcare. Topics that they post about include nursing lifestyle, education, professional developments, and career content. A lot of of amazing contributors keep this blog alive.
Great Read: “The Four Elements of Medical Malpractice in Nursing” talks about the reality of malpractice in the nursing field and ways to go about dealing with it when it happens. It then enumerates the various elements of malpractice that must be satisfied before a complaint can be filed against a certain malpractice.
Diversity Nursing
Why It Matters: Diversity Nursing is described as a “niche” blog for nurses. They write about healthcare issues and nursing culture. Information about the increasing demand and job opportunities for nurses is also included in the blog.
Great Read: “Teamwork In Nursing” in general discusses what makes good teamwork in the nursing field. It talks about the many traits that nurses must display in order to become team players for the benefit of their patients such as communication and trustworthiness.
The Underside of Nursing
Why It Matters: This blog is extremely unique and almost one-of-a-kind due to it being full of creative writing pieces and poems regarding the nursing practice. Each entry is comprised of a short blog post followed by the bread and butter of the site: their nursing-themed poems.
Great Read: “Unmasked” stars a poem that addresses various concerns the writer has of their hospital making questionable decisions that involve nurses getting punished for voicing out their concerns over safety. Some of these concerns involve not being allowed to wear PPE in lieu of an epidemic and nurses being laid off for complaining about the issue.
ER Nurse Insanity
Why It Matters: Working as an ER nurse is a tough job and the blogger vents his experiences in the ER department through ER Nurse Insanity. His writing style is both funny and quirky as he demonstrates himself to be straightforward with both his comments and opinions on various topics in nursing.
Great Read: “Fresh feelings” is an amazing story about being able to successfully treat a patient whose potassium level was at 8.9 (yes, that is bad). Somehow, the team was able to normalize the patients condition as much as they could, and eventually, the patient opened his eyes. The great thing about this is that miracles like this happen more often than we think, and they are often unheard of. Nonetheless, it’s a great feeling to be able to unexpectedly read about one when it does happen!
Bahala Na Nurse Blog
Why It Matters: Chiqui Raveloski decided to become a registered nurse after more than 20 years of working as a pharmacy tech. Now working in a telemetry unit of a small community hospital, she blogs about her daily experiences, as well as her own health advice for everyone.
Great Read: In “Why Do I Blog?,” Chiqui shares her insights about blogging and her profession as a nurse. She also reveals the reason why she used the Filipino phrase “Bahala Na” in her blog as she related it to her nursing career in the US.
The Nerdy Nurse
Why It Matters: Brittney Wilson, RN, BSN is the geek behind The Nerdy Nurse. She works as a Clinical Informatics Nurse and blogs about the nursing profession, technological innovations, and everything in between.
Great Read: “What is Continuing Education and Why is it Important for Nurses?” answers the question of what exactly continuing education is and why it is important for nurses. It also provides many examples and details of forms of continuing education such as formal education and standalone courses for continuing education credits.
Adventures of Hood Nurse: Hood Hospital 2, Electric Boogaloo
Why It Matters: Hood Nurse started her career in the ER department and she writes her rants about her experiences in her blog. She expresses her opinions straight to the point, fascinating her readers in the process. Many of her blog posts are her unfiltered thoughts and opinions, which are both very entertaining.
Great Read: In “How to Make an Arrogant Doctor Do What You Want Them To Do,” Hood Nurse narrates a personal experience of dealing with an arrogant doctor. Her tactics may be conniving and underhanded but funny and useful at the same time. No need to worry though. Her story doesn’t actually involve any real foul play—just some smart acting!
N Is For Nurse
Why It Matters: With more than six years of experience under her belt, Prisca shares the joys and pains of working as a labor and delivery nurse. She also discusses her observations of her fellow nurses and doctors in the L&D unit. You can learn to paint a picture of an ordinary day’s work in the L&D unit by reading her posts.
Great Read: “Doing it all for the money?” has Prisca talking about the clash between her ideals and what she’s actually doing. She reflects how what she’s doing isn’t all just about love for her job (though she’d like it to be), but also for the sake of her duties. Despite things she’s uncomfortable of doing, she still has to deliver because it’s her job. It’s an interesting dilemma that can also apply to other vocations.
Stethoscopes and Scrubs
Why It Matters: This blog was started by a nursing student who is now a go-to source for tips in studying and surviving the clinicals. The author also shares information about nursing books and continuing education programs.
Great Read: In “Estelle’s Guide to Nursing School: Part 6 – Surviving Clinicals Your Fundamental Semester,” the blogger shares the things she learned in her first semester in nursing school. Some examples of this are taking advantage of preclinicals, asking your professor what exactly is expected of you, and in general, being prepared.
RN: Real Newbie
Why It Matters: Nurse Kitty, the blogger behind RN: Real Newbie, started this blog as a nursing student. Now a registered nurse, she currently shares her opinions, experiences as well as some study tips for nursing students.
Great Read: “Patients Say the Strangest Things” is a funny story about her experience with a patient who always forgets what to call a dialysis as. This leads to an amusing result wherein the patient describes her going to the bathroom as her peeing through her blood when she’s actually referring to having a dialysis!
Frazzled-razzle-rn
Why It Matters: The blogger first started as a nursing student and, after some troubles and depression regarding failing the NCLEX the first time she attempted it, is now a registered nurse working in a labor and delivery unit.
Great Read: In “3 Heartbeats, 2 EFMs, & 1 Pregnant Mom,” the blogger shares her personal experience of hearing the heartbeat of a patient’s twin babies. It’s a touching story about being a new parent.
The Nurse Speak
Why It Matters: The lead creator of this blog is an educational specialist with over 20 years of mentoring experience. He’s been able to help hundreds of nursing students and professional nurses become better in their chosen career.
Great Read: “Tips for Passing the NCLEX: Stress Reduction” is a highly recommended article that talks about the basic techniques for NCLEX stress management. It reveals three strategies to help you focus better on your upcoming exam.
Nursing Student Tips
Why It Matters: This blog focuses on nursing students. Packed guides, tips, and tricks, it aims to help students succeed in their journey towards becoming professional nurses.
Great Read: Its Top Tools section reveals reliable study tools that you can use to hone your knowledge. These tools were carefully evaluated through personal experience and other nursing students’ thoughts to make sure that they are the best ones for you.
Aspen University Blog
Why It Matters: As a university blog, the site provides helpful tips to new and veteran nurses. From writing resumes to making career changes, you’ll find lots of guides here.
Great Read: If you’re visiting the site for the first time, check out “3 Ways New Nurses Can Avoid Burnout“. The condition is very common among nurses and reading their tips can help you avoid it. “Is It Time To Make A Nursing Career Change?” is also a highly recommended post, particularly for veteran nurses.