Nursing 2.0

Yep, I’m stealing another phrase. But this time it’s sort of borrowing a term – Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is a term that was coined in the early part of the new millennium. It was used to describe the ‘new’ internet after the ‘fall’ of the dot.com ‘bubble’. In laymen’s terms it’s the new internet versus the old.
The old internet (for those of us who actually used it back then) during the mid-90’s was a very different experience than what we are used to now. No, the internet itself and it’s inter-workings did not change, but the way we use it and the way we interact with it HAS. Does anyone remember the old Yahoo! or Google page? It was just a ‘sheet of paper’ with links (the infamous web portal). It was static, had no interaction with the visitor and it basically pointed you in a direction you were looking for. Nowadays Google, Yahoo! and the like are all about user connectivity and interaction. You get to be a ‘part’ of the page with customization, interaction and contribution. I won’t bore you with all the ‘geeky’ details but if you’re interested in learning a lil bit about this awesome phenomena visit the following links

http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

And here is a wonderful video that sums it up quite well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

So why am I boring you with geek-talk? Because nursing is following in the web’s footsteps. It seems that slowly but surely the ‘career’ of nursing is transforming. We are seeing in front of our very eyes. Everything from online classes and dedicated online degrees (including advanced practice nursing), online scholarly documentation systems (research), electronic health record (eRecord), online journals, webinairs (for CEU’s), virtual chat, telehealth (virtual stroke team), telenursing, web conferencing, web chat, instant messaging (twitter), and of course the very reason you are reading THIS website and my blog! It’s all a part of nursing growing upwards and out. Nursing is evolving into the state of the art system we all hoped it would be.

What sparked my idea?

I was attending an information session for possible graduate school admission this past week. During the conference it was explained that all graduate students will be required to possess a ‘hand held device’  and purchase certain medical programs to utilize during their clinical rotations as well as for classroom activities. Gone are the days of lugging around 6 books for pharmacology, physiology, assessment, etc weighing in excess of 500 pounds. Now you will carry around an electronic device no bigger than the palm of your hand that will possess all that information and more (including internet access) all at your fingertips to help assist you in your learning process.

The future is bright.