Nurse Practitioner Education

1. This Index of Malpractice Laws by State is a great resource for Nurse Practitioners and other healthcare professionals. If you have questions about laws and malpractice issues, you can search easily by state to find out what you need to know to protect yourself and your workplace.

2. The Pearson Report is an annual national overview of legislation and healthcare issues relating to Nurse Practitioners. Unfortunately, beginning in 2010, the complete report will only be available if you register with WebNPonline.

3. SkinSight.com has easily searchable pictures and graphics of a vast selection of skin problems and diseases. You can search by affected body part, name of disease, age, and sex of the patient to diagnose and find out about everything from acne to bed sores to skin cancer.

4. The American Dietetic Association’s nutrition manual is a good resource for finding printable handouts for your clients on diets and disease-specific information. The website also has BMI calculators and other fun tools to help educate your patients about proper nutrition and body weight.

5. Health.com has lists of the “most emailed” and “most popular” health-related stories, which can help you find out what the public wants to know most so you can prepare to answer those questions. It also has a list of fad diets, meal plans, quizzes and interesting health and diet-related articles.

6. PreventDisease.com has a handy “health tools” section that provides easy calculations for BMI, BMR, and Target Weight that are separated into kids, adults, men and women. The site also provides blood pressure assessments, a blood alcohol estimator, calorie calculators and disease risk assessors.

7. DrugDigest.com is a consumer health and drug information site with a drug library and interactive tools for patients to keep track of their medications. It also has drug interaction checkers, drug comparisons, and safety tips.

8. NurseLinkUp is “The Nurse Social Network” that features studies, news stories, and social networking for nurses all over the country.

9. HealthGrades.com is a great site for Nurse Practitioners looking for jobs. You don’t want to work just anywhere do you? When you want to find the best doctors, hospitals and nursing homes to work for – as graded by the patients – this independent rating organization is the place to look.

10. Jwatch.org has information from blogs, newspapers, websites, and every other resource on the web to give you little snippets of the latest in healthcare news. If you don’t have much spare time but want to stay up to date, this is the place to go.

There is a lot of useful health information on the net and many cool interactive applications that can help you gain insight into the prescription drugs that you are using, preventive medicines out there, Chinese medicines, alternative medicine therapies, and much more. The best part is that you get the information neatly categorized so that you don’t feel overwhelmed. If you really wanted total information the best thing to do would be to use these applications in conjunction with one another.

Here we present five free online web apps to learn about any medicine.

1. DoubleCheckMD – A cool web application that lets you use everyday language and search for the effects of various drugs. Aptly named Doublecheck; you can use it to quickly look up information on drugs; a simple phrase entry throws up detailed information on the drug. Or if you wish you can enter any symptoms you might be experiencing and abnormal lab test reports. The results that show up will tell you if your medication is responsible. You can discuss the information with your doctor and get a more rounded view of the situation. A great tool to inform and put your mind at ease about any discomfort that you might be feeling after taking medicine.

2. ABC Homeopathy – An exhaustive online tool that lists homeopathic remedies for the symptoms entered by you. A nice free application for those that have experienced positive results with this form of medicine. The level of interactivity is high and the questions asked before the suggestions are thrown up are quite detailed. You do not have to think, the software thinks for you. You only need to tick what’s applicable. A thorough background check is central to many alternative medicine practices, including homeopathy. A good aid for those that wish to learn about self-diagnosis.

3. Medstory – A cool search tool that promises in-depth information on health and medicine. The search engine’s partnership with quality reference sources online ensures relevant search results that can be refined and dug deeper into. The two main search categories are “Health” and “Research”. Search terms throw up results categorized into drugs, conditions, procedures, personal health, clinical studies, and more. The neat classification makes it easy to get appropriate information fast.

4. Right Health – A complete portal of quality health information including medicine. A single search term yields a ton of information segregated into many modules. Search for a medicine and you will get information categorized as overview, basic, references, patient experience, videos, guides, and articles. A good reference point for health-related queries of lay people. A related topics display gives you ideas on how best to expand your search and either go deeper into the topic or search laterally for associated subjects.

5. Curbside.MD – A well-thought of application that brings together evidence-based answers for questions that are asked in an everyday language. The extent to which the application pares down a simple query is impressive. The answers to a query are neatly categorized to facilitate ease of understanding. You are most likely to get a pertinent result on the result summary page itself. If not, you can check the Best Hits, Visual Diagnosis, Quick Consult, and more. There is also a Clinical Trials section that throws up results on clinical trials related to your query.

Regularly referencing these applications is sure to make the healthcare programs you practice more rounded. Your knowledge on medicines and their potential side effects will make it easier for you to fill forms at the doctor’s office. It also makes it easy for a doctor to pair your condition to a medicine keeping your physiology in mind.