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Yep, every nurse. Not just the pre-nurse nursing students, not just the current nurse-in-training students, and certainly not just the advanced degree seeking nurses out there.
Every nurse should blog and become a blogger for two reasons:
- Networking
I have lost count how many nurses I have met, chatted with, collaborated with and ‘connected’ to since I started actively blogging a couple years ago. I’ve met fellow bloggers who are nurses, I’ve met nurses who are also bloggers. And that’s just scraping the surface of blogging! Every medical profession is represented out there blogging! I’ve also met doctors (including residents in training and many specialists), paramedics, EMT’s, Physical therapists, Occupational therapists, respiratory therapists, allied health care professionals, etc. (and I’ve left so many out!)
All these wonderful professionals, including nurses, are from all over the world! Yes, I said the world. As far as England, Australia and India to name a few. All have their story to tell, and all have a wonderful ear to lend when it comes to sharing ideas, and the occasional ‘venting’ session. These folks are a great resource when needing validation on ‘not being alone’.
All of this connection improves your communication skills, heightens your professional awareness and increases your diversity of care.
- Verbiage
Blogging helps you write better. It improves your verbiage, whether you want it to be more concise or more grandiose, it will help. I remember when I first started blogging, I hated to write. I only ‘wrote’ when it was required (for school related responsibilities) And when I did write, I procrastinated so much that the quality of my writing suffered.
Since blogging I have learned ‘free writing’ and ‘free thought’ are some powerful tools. I have applied my ‘writing’ to my skills of charting (no I’m not saying charting is like blogging). I’ve learned to make my charting more concise, as well as improved my descriptive documentation. I no longer have trouble expressing my thoughts on paper (or computer). When I have to ‘chart’ an incident, or recount the day, I no longer stare at the paper (or screen), I just start.
Along with the writing comes the ability to tell a story better. Like it or not, most of our patient education is in the form of ‘story telling’. Thanks to blogging words no longer escape me when needing to better describe a therapy, treatment or intervention to my patient’s and their family members. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no professional journalist or elite blogger – but my skill of writing has improved.
No matter what ‘stage’ you are in as a fellow nurse – start blogging. It doesn’t matter where, or how, be like NIKE: ‘Just do it’. In my opinion there isn’t any drawbacks to blogging as a nurse. We all have privacy rules and regulations that concern us, but as a professional we should be abiding by them no matter where we communicate.
Get out there and blog my fellow nurses, it’s time well spent.
Oh yeah, if you don’t know where to start just contact me, I’m sure I can point you in the right direction. In the meantime go visit Kim over at Emergiblog. A cornucopia of nurse-blogging knowledge.
