We’re well past the point where there is an online social network for every community. We’re at the point where there are an absurd number of online social networks for every community.

A selection of online social networks for nurses:

Nurse Connect (previously mentioned here):

NurseConnect is an online nursing community and networking site for nurses and other healthcare professionals interested in advancing their education, careers and personal lives by sharing experiences and knowledge with others. NurseConnect is owned and operated by AMN Healthcare, Inc.

NurseLinkUp (previously mentioned here), is one of many sites run by Online LinkUp.

ANA Nursespace (previously mentioned here) doesn’t seem to be doing much at all.

SocialRN

I asked Arlton Lowry, the director of SocialRN, to make a case for what sets his site apart from the other online social networks for nurses.

Many of the other nursing social networking sites that are operating are built with one key objective in mind – profit. When sites are designed solely for the acquisition of profit, the design of the site and features suffer. We built socialRN for the nursing community and we have no other objective in mind.

The site offers many of the features that the other nursing social networks offer – like, photo sharing, blogs, status updates, file sharing, groups, ext. But what sets socialRN aside is how it integrates other Web 2.0 applications within the users profile. A user can display their flickr photos, what music they have last listed to – through last.fm, their position with Google Maps, and even their Twitter update. It allows users to bring all the other Web 2.0 services they are using together into one location.

Also, the design of a site is crucial for a pleasant user experience. There is no clutter within socialRN. We have developed the site so that it is easy for a user to navigate content and socialize with other users.

It’s worth noting that the site is built on Open Source software that will is upgradable and expandable in the future. It will allow us to add additional features and grow the site as more users are added.

The Open Source software socialRN uses is elgg, also used by Nurse’s Cafe

In the category of Online Social Networks with Very Unfortunate Names, we have TNA LinkUp.

Liz: Whatcha’ looking at?
David: A site called “TNA LinkUp”
Liz: …You’re looking at porn?!

See? Unfortunate name. ‘Nuff said.

I was interested to find there’s a social network just for travelers, HealthCare Gypsy.

Nurses Lounge interests me because it is made up of lounges that are specific to metro area or nursing specialty.

CampusRN2RN is for nursing students.

I know I’ve missed some- please let me know?

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Medical librarian Anne Ludvik takes a proactive approach to helping busy staff nurses solve patient care problems and get up-to-date health information at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center.

“It’s difficult for nurses to get to the physical library, so we work to bring digital resources to them,” Ludvik says.

[Read the rest]

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I wonder how it’ll compare to NurseConnect or NurseLinkUp.

So the AMA has a partnership with Sermo and the ANA is building its own social network. I wonder if there will soon be a online social network or two for most specialties and allied healthcare professions. I don’t find it difficult to imagine a time where most professional associations include (as a membership benefit) access to an online social network. Perhaps they’ll become as common as listservs are now.

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I’ve never been admitted to a hospital as an inpatient before a couple of days ago. I’ve never had oxygen tubes in my nostrils. I’ve never had to press a call button to ask for help going to the toilet. I’m trying to see it as a learning opportunity and as an important professional experience instead of just a very unpleasant one.

I’ve been walking around for days with an increasingly uncomfortable tightness in my chest that started to move from discomfort to pain on Monday. A visit to an urgent care center near my home revealed a diagnosis that I hadn’t expected. My right lung had completely collapsed.

I don’t recommend it. It is very unpleasant.

It seems I’ll be here with a chest tube for at least a couple more days, perhaps longer.

My supervisor is discouraging me from doing any work, so I may continue to blog when I feel clear-headed because I find it a pleasant way to make time pass a little faster.

In the meanwhile: Any suggestions on how to make an inpatient stay more pleasant?

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NurseConnect is an online nursing community and networking site for nurses and other healthcare professionals interested in advancing their education, careers and personal lives by sharing experiences and knowledge with others. NurseConnect is owned and operated by AMN Healthcare, Inc.

The only other online social network specifically for nurses that I’m aware of is NurseLinkUp.

Previous posts about online social networks for clinicians

• Syndicom SpineConnect (Online Social Network for Spine Surgeons)
• Physicians “don’t have time for social networks”?
• Prometeo Network: Another Social Network for Clinicians
• UK Social Network for Physicians: Doctors.net.uk
• MedicSpeak: Another Social Network for Health Professionals
• Even More Social Networks for Clinicians
• Sermo becomes official AMA social network
• More Social Networks for Clinicians
• NurseLinkUp: MySpace for Nurses
• Sermo: Another “MySpace for Physicians”
• Healtheva: MySpace for Doctors?

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PERHAPS WE CAN BLAME IT ON MY BEING SNOWED IN, but I recently discovered YouTube^TM and began to contemplate its potential impact on nursing education. There is a lot of controversy surrounding trash on YouTube, but this is a social phenomenon that cannot be ignored by educators. As you will see here and in future columns, my intention is to focus on Web 2.0 tools and how we can begin to use them to transform nursing education. I will build off five themes (Web 2.0 as a social networking medium, digital natives, Net generation, visual literacy, and thinking outside the box) and develop the notion of Nursing Education 2.0 — that is, emerging technologies that will transform the way nursing education is offered.

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Time to add to that list:

Tiromed

Tiromed is a professional knowledge network exclusively for students of medicine and physicians. The purpose of this network is to facilitate communication not only between peers at the same academic and professional level, but to allow communication between all levels.

SocialMD

SocialMD is a great new way to network with other physicians. Whether you are a medical student, resident, fellow or physician you will find that SocialMD is a great way to meet and network with other medical professionals. There are currently more than 1700 members in SocialMD.

Clinical Village

ClinicalVillage.com was created to give you the ability to communicate with other clinicians and build an online community where you can share your clinical and life experience with colleagues, ask and answer questions, blog about your current hot button issues, find old college or med school friends, or make new ones. This site depends on you for it’s content and direction. It’s your community, please help build it. Remember, this site has no sponsorship or any other ties to industry.

And of course the previously-mentioned:

Sermo

Welcome to the only online community where physicians around the nation exchange the latest medical insights with each other and improve patient outcomes – 24/7

Healtheva

Healtheva is a community for physicians, researchers, residents, interns, and medical students.

NurseLinkUp

Nurse LinkUp is the premier online nursing community for nursing professionals, student nurses, and those involved or interested in the nursing and healthcare industries in general.

Any others that I’ve missed?

Previous posts about Social Networks for Clinicians

• NurseLinkUp: MySpace for Nurses
• Sermo: Another “MySpace for Physicians”
• Healtheva: MySpace for Doctors?

Learn CPR is a free public service supported by the University of Washington School of Medicine. Learn the basics of CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Updated with new CPR Guidelines issued by the American Heart Association and published in Circulation, Dec 13 2005.

Includes instructional videos:

I’m finding that viewing a lot of online training materials on a single topic helps me figure out what I think works.

Some other Web-based CINAHL tutorials:

• EBSCO
• Florida Gulf Coast University
• UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library
• University of Florida Health Science Center Libraries
• Duke Medical Center Library
• Kings College (London)
• Wright State University Libraries