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Nursing is hard enough when you do it from home, but when you travel, it is all the more difficult. Luckily, travel nurses with iPhones can find lots to utilize with these top 50 apps for travel, health, and more.

Essential Travel iPhone Apps for Nurses

Check out these travel iPhone apps to make flying, driving, currency, itineraries, and more even easier.

1. TravelTracker: With this app, you can organize all of your travel related items like flights, hotel stays, and car rentals. Just enter your flight information and view its status via the web. It can also track train travel and pleasure cruises.

2. TripIt: Use this iPhone app as an online travel itinerary and trip planner. Simply email your travel plans, including mode of transportation and lodging. It then organizes them and more into one master itinerary. It can even notify you of delays.

3. Flight Track: Download this app and get real-time status for flights from around the world. Live weather radar updates, route maps, and other info are also included. You can even search for alternate flights if your current one doesn’t work for you.

4. AeroChannelMobile: Visit here to get information on flight’s directly from your iPhone. Simply type in your airport, airline, or flight number to get an answer. Works for departures and arrivals.

5. Currency: Get up-to-date currency exchange rates with this iPhone app. It provides exchange rates for over 70 countries, to help you find out the value of local money. Simply enter your master currency to get instant answers in 18 languages.

6. TSA Wait: Download this app for wait time statistics for airport security checkpoints across the U.S. The statistics are compiled by the TSA and released regularly. There is also a similar app on the site entitled FAAwait.

7. Zipcar: The world’s largest provider of rental and loaner cars, they have an iPhone app due out later in 2009. It tells you what cars are available and directs you to it once you’ve made a reservation. The app can even unlock the car using your iPhone signal.

8. XpenseTracker: This is an all inclusive expense tracking application for business or personal use. In addition to recording all of your expenses, it can export them to your desktop in an Excel friendly format. Photo receipts are also exported to your desktop computer.

9. Rest Area: Traveling by car? Then use this app to get the closest rest areas and display them on a map or in a customized listing. It also tells you where to get gas, food, lodging, and more.

Essential Health iPhone Apps for Travel Nurses

Anyone, regardless of medical training, can utilize the following iPhone apps for their health or the health of others.

10. WebMD: Take this leading medical site with you on your iPhone with this free app. You can check symptoms and even access treatment information. It also comes with handy first aid essentials.

11. Pocket First Aid & CPR: The American Heart Association offers this app for $3.99 and has the latest information for viewing anywhere. It features hundreds of pages with illustrations, including topics such as choking, bites, bruises, burns, seizures, diabetic emergencies, and more. It even has a kit checklist and medical information storage.

12. iFirstAid: No need to travel with a bulky first aid handbook anymore. It contains loads of information and even offers a Lite version for free. You can also enter their contest to win first aid related items.

13. First Aid Children: This downloadable guide is made for those who work or travel with children. It shows how to protect yourself, check for vitals, deal with blocked airways, and even has special cases of emergency. There is also a special section for infants.

14. iBP: This is a blood pressure tracking and analysis tool. Blood pressure values can be easily entered along with pulse, weight, and notes. Graphs are also included for multiple readings.

15. Learn CPR: Need to brush up on this skill? Then get this free app with videos on how to perform it on an adult, child, or infant. Also useful if you want to teach others how to do it.

16. Vision: Use your iPhone as a tool to conduct vision tests on patients. Choose from Ishihara color, astigmatism, retinal function, and visual field test. It also comes with exercises and games to maintain your own vision.

Essential iPhone Apps Just for Travel Nurses

It helps to be a nurse or medical professional when utilizing the following apps.

17. AirStrip: The platform securely delivers critical patient information, including virtual real-time waveform data, directly from hospital monitoring systems to a doctor or nurse’s smart phone, laptop, or desktop. It is reusable, scalable, data independent, and can be employed throughout the healthcare enterprise.

18. Netter’s Anatomy: For $39.99 you can get anatomical illustrations from this popular atlas right on your iPhone. Navigate through images with the flick of a finger, pinch to zoom, and tap to test your knowledge of muscles, bones, vessels, and the joints. There is even a study feature to help you learn more.

19. Patient Keeper: This series of applications helps thousands of physicians automate their entire day across all care settings. Apps offered include clinical, financial, integration, and documentation. There is much more information, and even a demo, on the site.

20. Epocrates: Get access to accurate, up to date, drug and clinical information with this app. There is even a feature with bed time reading just for medical professionals. Best of all, some versions of it are available for free.

21. Human Atlas: The Blausen application provides point-of-care access to 3D animations of common medical treatments and conditions, with accompanying narration. It contains over 7,000 individual animations and 13,000 illustrations. Use for every medical category from cancer to urinary.

23. MediMath: An iPhone calculator, it puts 133 of the most important medical calculators and scoring tools in the palm of your hand. Determine a patient’s GFR, predict cardiac mortality with the Framingham cardiac risk score, or calculate the reticulocyte index in just a few taps. There are also tons of other calculations, and you can customize for your favorites.

Essential iPhone Apps for Travel Nurse’s Health

Stay on top of your own health during travels by taking a look at these apps.

24. My Life Record: Everything from medical imaging, charts, medications, and even lab results can now be accessed and shared all via your iPhone. While other applications rely on you or your doctor to enter the information, My Life Record uses patent pending technology to take your exact medical record and retain it. An outstanding feature is its ability to display images like x-ray, echocardiogram, ultrasound, and MRI’s.

25. My Health: This app for the iPhone’s dashboard provides simple, easy icon access to a user’s health profile. It can include allergies, prescriptions, conditions, and more. It also enables transport of data to health partners from the web or phone.

26. iEmergency: Like MyHealth, this app can also store all your pertinent medical information. It also includes information such as ICE, allergies, medications, and more. You can even download a free medical ID card as a PDF on the site.

27. ID Lock: Do you have information like family Social Security numbers, medical information, and credit card information written down in your iPhone? Then get ID Lock to protect your personal identification by encrypting and password protecting your data. You can also use it to safely store personal IDs, credit cards, passports, and medical Ids.

28. Close Call: This one-step application saves contact information and emergency summary for first-responders. It puts it all on your wallpaper for easy viewing. Free to download.

Essential Language iPhone Apps for Travel Nurses

Visiting a country or region where patients speak a foreign language? Then try out these apps to help you learn, speak, or even hear the language from your iPhone.

29. Cool Gorilla Phrasebooks: This collection of apps stands out for its ability to actually say the phrase in the language you want to say it in. Simply type in what you want to say and have these apps repeat it in French, German, Spanish, and others. You can also choose a category and sub-category for suggestions on what to say.

30. Audio Phrasebooks: Similar to the above, these apps will speak the phrase in a foreign language from your iPhone. It works with 31 different language combinations including products Japanese, German, Italian, and French speakers. Translations can also be done as phonetic pronunciations if you want to say it yourself.

31. Ultralingua: Get a lightweight language dictionary without all the frills here. The dictionary works for English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, and more. There are even Collins titles, which offer premium content with more richly edited entries.

32. TranslateIt!: This app gives you one-click translation of texts from one language to another powered by Google online translation engine. Use for many languages including more ignored ones such as Bulgarian, Croatian, Vietnamese, and others. Best of all it is free.

Essential Map iPhone Apps for Travel Nurses

Learn where you are going, where you are, or where you would like to go with the help of these essential mapping iPhone applications.

33. Google Earth: Virtually visit the location you are going to by downloading this app. It includes high-resolution imagery for over half of the world’s population and a third of the world’s land mass. It also comes with features such as local search, motion detection, and panoramio photo layer.

34. TomTom: Never pay for a GPS device again with the use of this app and an iPhone. In addition to the regular features of a mapping app, it can also give you turn by turn directions. There is also a car kit for sale and a music feature.

35. Google Maps: Go beyond the included iPhone app and get more from Google. It allows you to search for business listings, get driving or walking directions, and even view street level imagery. You can also get real time traffic to help you find the fastest route.

36. iPhone Travel Guides: Cool Gorilla brings you complete travel guides to popular destinations. Choose from Bangkok, Cancun, Dubai, and more. It lists the top ten must see sites for each city.

37. City Guides: Similar to the above, these guides will tell you all about your travel destinations. There are currently 20 to choose from including New York, Melbourne, Amsterdam, Seoul, Cape Town, and Mexico City. Best of all there are no roaming costs as these guides are stand alone.

38. Locly: Find nearby attractions, cafes and shops with this app in most countries. You can also look at local photos from Flickr, and pull up Twitter or Wikipedia entries that are close to where you are. It can also save search terms for later reference.

Essential iPhone Apps to Keep Up for Travel Nurses

Stay current with your workload, mail, and more by downloading one of these apps.

39. Yahoo! Go: Send an email, upload photos, download a map, search for answers, check stock quotes, or get breaking news all in one app. There is a guided tour and FAQ if you want to learn more. You can even customize widgets for it such as eBay, Myspace, and MTV.

40. Tweetie: For a couple of bucks, you can get this app to keep up with Twitter. You can handle multiple accounts, retweet, navigate chains, and more. It uses the full Twitter API so there will be little to miss from your iPhone.

41. NatsuLion: Another Twitter application, this one is available at no charge. It allows you to do simple tasks such as display timeline, post, reply, and more. It even allows you to view friend’s conversations.

42. netTV: Afraid of missing your favorite shows during travel? Then get netTV to watch over 200 live TV Channels from different countries on your iPhone. Browse through the various channels, or add the ones you like.

Essential Specialty iPhone Apps for Travel Nurses

Check out these iPhone apps to make your nursing and traveling more safe and fun.

43. Emergency Radio: When the power goes out, only one channel is left. Use Emergency Radio to listen to over 1,000 live police, fire, EMS, and other emergency frequencies. You can even locate nearby frequencies using the Nearby feature.

44. A Free Lever: Just what it sounds like this app is a free lever installed directly to your iPhone. It is ideal for taking perfectly level pictures of groups, horizons, or anything. It even makes a sound when it’s level so you don’t have to look away.

45. Speed: Want to know how fast your plane, train, or boat is going? Then download this app that uses the location data from the GPS in iPhone 3G to provide a near-accurate representation. Both kilometers and miles per hour are supported, along with a landscape mode for widescreen operation.

46. If Found: Losing your iPhone during travel can be a nightmare. The app enables you to create a message and contact information on your own personal wallpaper in case it’s left behind. And the most important part is that this information can be viewed even if the phone is locked.

47. PetMD: Have an animal in need of some assistance? Then visit PetMD to get various apps for your iPhone. Choose from cat or dog emergencies, MD Finder, a list of veterinary terms, and others.

48. Pet First Aid: Another app for animal health, it contains detailed information to help you care for your dog or cat. Videos show you how to restrain, muzzle, CPR, bandaging, and many more. There are also useful illustrations and articles.

49. SodaSnap: Turn any photo into an instant postcard to send to your friends by stopping here. It also allows you to add text and customize. Once finished, you can simply email it to whomever you choose.

50. Travel Tips: Not an iPhone app, but this guide from AT&T is essential for how to use your iPhone during travel without running up a huge bill. It also offers a travel guide that shows you which countries are compatible and allows you to build an itinerary. A must read even if AT&T isn’t your carrier.

Help make your traveling and nursing more efficient, safe, and hassle free by taking a look at these 50 essential iPhone apps for travel nurses. They will help you fly, nurse, eat, and even sleep better.

Get a jump start on nursing school by taking classes for free on the internet. With all the information and confusion out there, choosing the right ones can be difficult. Unless, you turn to the below 100 cutting-edge open courses for beginning, advanced, specialty, and other nurses.

Beginning Open Courses for Nurses

These open courses are ideal for nurses just starting out on their education or those who just want to brush up.

1. Public Health 101: Get the same introduction to medicine and health as the students at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It contains a series of presentations to introduce health department employees to the basic terms and concepts that they are likely to encounter in the field.

2. Introduction to Biology: A leader in open courses, M.I.T. offers this class to its freshmen complete with video lectures. It covers the fundamental principles of biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology, and cell biology.

3. General Human Anatomy: Learn the functional anatomy of the human body as revealed by gross and microscopic examination in this course. Lessons come as a webcast, audio, or download the MP3.

4. Medical Terminology: The College of Eastern Utah offers this nursing course. Simply click on the column on the left to get lessons, key terms, and case studies.

5. General Biology: Life processes are examined primarily at the molecular and cellular levels. It is a good starting point for the more advanced courses and comes with reading, lecture materials, and more.

6. Principles of Human Disease: This course covers understanding and approaches to human disease, emphasizing both genetic disease and cancer. It comes with a complete set of readings and assignments.

7. Microbiology: Get an introductory on infectious agents such as Streptococcus and Fastidious Bacteria. Tufts University gives you a syllabus, lectures, and even labs.

8. Introduction to Clinical Pain Problems: The program provides information on optimal pain management through a unique, interdisciplinary program for pain education. In addition to the readings, there are links to other useful resources.

Advanced Open Courses for Nurses

Second year nurses looking to go beyond the basics will appreciate the following open courses.

9. General Biology: Get an introduction to population genetics, ecology, and evolution. To be taken after first year biology courses.

10. Principles and Practice of Human Pathology: This course puts an emphasis on mechanisms of disease and diagnostic medicine. Major organ systems, cellular mechanisms of disease, and imaging are all discussed.

11. Gastroenterlogy: Get a detailed description on the inner workings of the digestive system in this course. It discusses the anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, biophysics, and bioengineering of the gastrointestinal tract and the associated pancreatic, liver. and biliary tract systems.

12. Human Reproductive Biology: Designed to give the student a clear understanding of the menstrual cycle, the course also discusses fertilization, implantation, ovum growth development, differentiation, and associated abnormalities. Readings and lecture notes are included.

13. Tumor Pathophysiology and Transport Phenomena: Tumor pathophysiology plays a central role in the growth, invasion, metastasis, and treatment of solid tumors. This class applies principles of transport phenomena to develop a systems-level, quantitative understanding of it.

14. General Genetics: This in-depth look at genetics, includes mechanisms of inheritance, gene transmission, and DNA element. Developmental genetics are also discussed.

15. Musculoskeletal Pathophysiology: Learn about the immunology and pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases. They may predominantly affect joints but also affect multiple organ systems of the body in some diseases.

16. How Best to Deliver Bad News: One of the hardest things for a nurse or doctor to do, get expert advice on how. Elly Hann is the director of the San Diego Hospice and Palliative Care and speaks on how best to deliver the diagnosis of a potentially terminal illness to patients.

Specialty Beginning Open Courses for Nurses

Nurses looking to go into a particular specialty or who are just curious should check out these open courses.

17. Introduction to Neuroscience: Get detailed lessons on the anatomy and growth of the brain in this course. You will also learn about higher brain functions dealing with memory, language, and affective disorders.

18. Nutrition Function and Metabolism: See how nutrients get delivered to cells in this course. It also discusses activation, storage, excretion, and toxicity of nutrients.

19. Speech Communication: Learn applications to recognition and generation of speech, along with the study of speech disorders. The course also surveys the structural properties of natural languages, with special emphasis on the sound pattern.

20. Ophthalmology Grand Rounds: Provided by Tufts University, this course is ideal for the study of the eye and adjoining systems. A series of patient cases is presented weekly and followed by a discussion with faculty, professors, and ophthalmologists.

21. The Peripheral Auditory System: The focus of this course is the ear and its related systems. Experimental approaches to the study of hearing and deafness are presented through lectures and laboratory exercises.

22. Renal Pathology: The importance of the kidneys and their function is demonstrated in the course. It also reviews how the kidneys adapt to extra-renal disturbances and explores disorders that can arise from defects in kidney function.

23. Cholesterol in Health and Disease: One of the most common blood tests, this course examines the good and bad of cholesterol. It also deals with cholesterol-related human disorders and the drugs that deal with them.

24. Pathology of Hypertension: Learn about high blood pressure and related issues in this 14 page PDF. Dr. Gilbert’s objectives are to instruct on hemodynamic determinants, the role of the kidney, and various other topics.

Advanced Open Courses for Nurses in Specialties

Get extra open courses for nurses in all sorts of specialties below.

25. Fundamentals of Oncology: Lectures cover the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention/screening measures used for various cancers. Controversies surrounding this disease are also discussed.

26. Cardiovascular Pathophysiology: This second year course expands on the fundamentals and more advanced practices of cardiology. Content includes electrocardiography, cardiac muscle cell, and hypovolemic shock.

27. Pathology of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism: Learn about three different diseases and how hormone levels and the thyroid can affect them. Other diseases include pituitary neoplasia and hypothyroidism.

28. Gastroenterology Pathophysiology: This course explores a variety of gastrointestinal disorders from gastroesophageal reflux disease to cirrhosis. Treatments for theses disease disorders are covered in detail.

29. Confronting the Burden of Injuries: Nurses who work in the emergency room will appreciate this course. Prevention and treatment of various injuries are discussed.

30. The Impact of Primary Care on Population Health: Technically not a specialty, this course examines primary care and its definition. The lecture summarizes Professor Leiyu Shi’s work on primary care, his research, and U.S. primary care studies.

Open Courses for Nurses in Specific Diseases

These open courses focus on a specific disease, its cause, treatment, and more.

31. Cancer Biology: This course is ideal for nurses going into oncology. Topics discussed include tumor formation, progression, metastasis, and much more.

32. Pain and Endometriosis: Endometriosis is most often seen by those who specialize in gynecology and women’s health. In this lecture, Karen Berkley, Ph.D. talks about pain and this condition.

33. Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases: Get an introduction to the basic methods for infectious disease epidemiology and case studies of important disease syndromes and entities here. Case-studies focus on acute respiratory infections, diarrheal diseases, hepatitis, HIV, tuberculosis, STD’s, malaria, and other vector-borne diseases.

34. Autism Theory and Technology: A devastating disease among children, learn more about the theories pertaining to it. Students will understand, help, and learn from people with autism.

35. Diabetes Mellitus: Dr. Anastassios G. Pittas is an expert who tells all about this disease. It includes symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments.

36. Parkinson’s Disease Workshop: Nurses practicing in the field of neurology will encounter this disease. This workshop explored different aspects of it including characteristics, neuropathology, genetics, and cognitive function.

37. Impact of Pandemic Influenza on Public Health: This training examines the path of the avian influenza and how it could impact world health. Get the slide version here, or register for free to get the full one.

38. Diarrhea and Malabsorption: Get an inside look at how this condition affects the body. It uses lectures, slides, and even has quizzes.

39. Malariology: This course emphasizes the biology of malaria parasites and factors affecting their transmission to humans. Topics include host-parasite-vector relationships, diagnostics, risk factors associated with infection, and policy issues.

40. Irritable Bowel Syndrome: In this lecture, Dr. Emeran Mayer talks about IBS. He focuses on the disease in women and pain management.

41. STI Prevention: Also known as sexually transmitted illness, this course shows how to inform and prevent. Nurses can also learn about the etiology and epidemiology of STI’s.

Open Courses for Nurses for After School

These open courses are ideal for after nursing school and show what to expect in nursing life, how to get ahead, and more.

42. Management Communication for Undergraduates: The Sloan School of Management at M.I.T. is renowned for producing some of the top minds in management. Learn how undergraduates are taught to communicate as managers in this course.

43. Caring in Hospitals: This course is designed to show nurses what they can expect from working in a hospital. It considers the type of care offered in hospitals, using Leeds General Hospital as a case study.

44. Information Technology in the Health Care System of the Future: Get a step ahead of other nurses by knowing what to expect in the future in this course from M.I.T. It discusses information technology, e-health delivery over the internet, and more.

45. Professional Issues in Nursing: This is an intermediate seminar to assist registered nurses to develop the critical reading, thinking and writing skills necessary for university level study. Professional practice and nursing leadership are also explored.

46. Diversity and Difference in Communication: Learn interpersonal communication in health and social care services in this course. Differences, identities, and more are discussed.

47. Training Methods and Continuing Education for Health Workers: Nurses who wish to train and educate others will learn how in this course. It draws on real life examples from community-directed onchocerciasis control, village health worker programs, and patent medicine vendor training programs.

Open Courses for Nurses on Caring

Learn the latest advances in caring in these open courses.

48. Substance Abuse and the Family: A more and more common cause of health problems, this course examines how substance abuse affects the family, along with the abuser. It also explores the methods and resources available for helping such families.

49. Health Assessment and Promotion: This course focuses on the complete health assessment, the nursing process, and its relationship to the prevention and early detection of disease. It even includes a laboratory component complemented by self-directed computer assisted instruction.

50. Vitamin D Prevents Cancer?: In a new study, researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center determined that intake of vitamin D3 and calcium would prevent thousands of cancer cases annually in the US and Canada. Carole Baggerly with GrassrootsHealth has more.

51. Treating Female Veterans of War: Darrah Westrup is a recognized authority on the treatment of PTSD and discusses the mental health needs of women who have served in the military. She puts emphasis on the emergent needs of OIF/OEF women.

Historic Open Courses for Nurses

Get a solid grip on the future of medicine by taking a look at what the past can teach nurses.

52. The History of Public Health: John Hopkins University gives you a look at public health from 1750 to the present. Students learn how the organization of societies facilitates or mitigates the production and transmission of disease, along with many other topics.

53. Disease and Society in America: Using a historical approach, this course examines the changing patterns of disease, the causes of mortality, and the evolution of medical theory and practice. Also taught are the development of hospitals and the ethics of health care in America.

54. Lennox Castle Hospital: Built in the 1930’s, Lennox Castle was the largest hospital in the UK and considered to be 100 years ahead of its time. Learn about its history and what it can teach us now.

55. History of Anthropology of Medicine and Biology: Topics discussed in this course include histories of bodies in medicine, genes and genomes, the role of science and medicine in racial formation, and emergent diseases. The course also takes a look at new reproductive technologies and socialities.
Open Courses for Nurses in Mental Health

Learn how to treat the mind, along with the body, in these open courses.

56. Introduction to Psychology: Get an introduction to how the human brain operates in this freshmen course from M.I.T. It covers human behavior and mental life ranging from how you see to why you fall in love.

57. General Psychology: This course contains the principal areas, problems, and concepts of psychology. Available as audio or video and even for the hearing impaired.

58. Challenging Ideas in Mental Health: Both new and old ideas in mental health are challenged in this course. Examples include risk and madness.

59. Human Emotion: This course examines two theoretical perspectives on emotion: the differential emotions approach and the social constructionist approach. Also included are culture, gender, personality, and psychopathology.

60. The Pathology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Bipolar Disorder: Dr. Donald Hilty presents an update on bipolar disorder. In this 50 minute lecture, he also discusses epidemiology.

61. Introduction to Mental Health and Disaster Preparedness: This presentation introduces the topics of disaster mental health services, mental health surge capacity, and psychiatric first aid. Hurricane Katrina and other disasters are used as examples.

62. Social Attitudes and Public Opinion: Learn how patients can feel about certain behaviors in this course. The nature of attitudes, beliefs, and values are examined.

63. Social and Behavioral Aspects of Public Health: The course is designed to help students develop basic literacy regarding social concepts that influence health status. Objectives include helping students develop insight into populations with whom they have worked in the past or will work in the future.

64. Psychology of Gender: Should male and female patients be treated differently? Take this course to find out.

Open Courses for Nurses in Imaging

One of the latest advances in technology, nurses are also in demand for this specialty. Get prepared by looking at the below open courses.

65. Principles of Radiation Interaction: This course is ideal for nurses who wish to work in or with imagery technology. The central theme is the interaction of radiation with biological material.

66. Noninvasive Imaging in Biology and Medicine: Similar to the above, the course discusses X-ray, CT, PET/SPECT, MRI, and optical imaging. In addition to the lectures, there are also hands on demonstrations.

67. Biomedical Signal and Image Processing: Learn the fundamentals of digital signal processing with particular emphasis on problems in biomedical research and clinical medicine. Both two and three dimensional models are used.

68. Magnetic Resonance Analytic, Biochemical, and Imaging Techniques: This is an introduction to NMR theory, or nuclear magnetic resonance. Students participate in detailed study imaging techniques, including cross-sectional image reconstruction, contrast, flow and real-time imaging, and hardware design considerations.

69. Radiation Terror 101: Learn about the harmful affects of radiation in this course. It includes principles, safety, protection, and basic types of radiation.

Open Courses for Nurses in Ethics

Don’t wait until you are in the middle of a shift to make critical decisions. Use these open courses to learn what to do before you do it.

70. Human Rights in Theory and Practice: This course covers human rights issues including gender and race discrimination, globalization and human rights, and technology. Also included are readings, assignments, and related resources.

71. Narrative Ethics: Literary Texts and Moral Issues in Medicine: Use historic literary narratives and poetry to study ethical issues in medicine. Works studied include those by Woolf, Chekhov, Kafka, Marquez, and Tolstoy.

72. Moral and Ethical Principles in End of Life Care: In many areas of health care, and especially in such areas as palliative care, increasing attention has been paid in recent years to patient autonomy. Ethics such as telling the truth to patients and seeking their consent for health care interventions are discussed.

73. Ethical Issues in Public Health: Discussions focus on ethical theory and current ethical issues in public health and health policy. This includes resource allocation, the use of summary measures of health, the right to health care, and conflicts between autonomy and health promotion efforts.

74. Ethics of Human Subject Research: Topics covered in lectures and discussions include informed consent for research participation, role of institutional review boards, selection of research subjects, and privacy. In includes lecture materials and readings.

75. Dilemmas in Bio-Medical Ethics: An up and coming field of medicine, learn more about the good and harm that can come from it. The course comes with readings, lecture notes, and assignments.

76. Introduction to Health Policy: Learn how those at the top organize the health policy to see how it affects nurses. Four main topics cover economics, need, ethics, and quality.

Open Courses for Nurses who Work With Children

Learn how to deal with the youngest patients and their parents with these open courses.
77. Reproductive and Perinatal Health: Lectures and research papers present issues such as conception and infertility, contraception and hormone supplementation safety and the affects they can have on reproductive cancers. Also included are perinatal issues such as complications of pregnancy, maternal mortality, and birth defects.

78. Preventing Infant Mortality: This course focuses on the problems and interventions associated with infant mortality. It describes the scientific basis for infant mortality and analyzes causes and consequences.

79. Infant and Early Childhood Cognition: In this course, students learn the normal development of an infant and toddler. Very useful for recognizing diseases or problems with the health of the child.

80. Human Growth and Development: This course follows the development of motor, language, and cognitive capacities, among other topics. Content includes cognitive development, personality disorders, and motor development in children.

81. Adolescent Health and Development: The purpose of the course is to explore a variety of aspects of adolescence and adolescent health. It uses lectures, readings, discussion, and panels of guest speakers

82. Environmental Causes of Birth Defects: Learn how to care for a child in the nine months before it is born with this lecture. Dr. Edward Lammer of Oakland Children’s Hospital discusses Gene Environment Interaction.

83. Improving School Related Peer Relationships: Dr. Kasari discusses both solutions and obstacles to overcome when trying to help improve the social lives of higher-functioning children in mainstream classrooms.

Open Courses for Nurses in Elder Care

The most common patients doctors and nurses encounter are senior citizens. Learn the diseases that affect them, treatments, and more in these open courses.

84. Geriatrics: Dementia, Delirium, and Depression: The three most prevalent mental disorders in the elderly, Dr. James Bourgeois lectures in detail. He explores the work up and management of elderly persons presenting with these mental disorders.

85. Update on Alzheimer’s Disease: A devastating disease for seniors and their families, Dr. Charles DeCarli provides an overview of recent scientific developments. Topics covered include: the role of vascular disease in Alzheimer’s Disease, assessment and management of mild cognitive impairment, and use of cognitive enhancers.

86. Transitions Into Residential Care: This course identifies the process in which the elderly transition into residential care. Ideal for nurses who plan to work in this field.

87. Health Issues for Aging Populations: Get an introduction to the study of aging, its implications for individuals, and the background for health policy related to older persons. Also included are basic health and mental health issues.

88. Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment: This 25 page PDF focuses on geriatrics, medicine, and health. The Five I’s of Geriatrics are also covered.

89. Population Medicine: Go beyond the single patient and learn how to treat a population in this course. In this course, the elderly are used as a model population to explore the intersection between clinical practice and population medicine.

90. Healthy Brain Aging: Dan Mungas is the Associate Director of the UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and lectures on healthy brain aging. He addresses the diversity in cognitive aging, describes how the brain changes with aging, and gives strategies for health.

91. Basic Human Pathology: This course serves as a foundation for other courses and aids in the understanding of managing patients. It is particularly aimed at more aged patients with complex medical histories.

Open Courses for Nurses in Other Areas

Get the best of the rest in open courses for nurses below.

92. Issues in Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Learn why so many people turn to alternative medicine and why they raise such controversy here. This unit explores why, critical issues, and ethics.

93. How to Learn (Almost) Anything: Ideal for those who have trouble learning new technological concepts, this course shows you how. Students reflect on a variety of learning situations, develop new workshops, and analyze how and what the workshop participants learn.

94. Comparitive Health Policy: This course examines the health care policy problems facing the United States. This includes providing access to medical services for all, the control of rising costs, and the assurance that the quality of health care services is high and improving.

95. Statistics for Laboratory Scientists: Offered by John Hopkins, it gives a basic overview of experiments in the biological sciences. Students are even taught how to use R software.

96. Pharmacology: Use this course to learn about every drug from Abilify to Zyrtec. Planned topics include over-the-counter drugs, “dietary supplements,” drugs of abuse, and many more.

97. Natural Supplements for Pain in Women: Dr. Robert Bonakdar is the director of pain management at Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine. Get an inside look at how supplements can help or hurt with pain management in this lecture.

98. Environmental Health: Discover how elements in the environment can make people sick in this course. Topics include how the body reacts to pollutants, agents of contamination, and emerging global environmental health problems.

99. Biology of Sex: Dr. Mark Sussman teaches this course at San Diego State University. Get a syllabus, useful links, and other resources.

100. AIDS and Poverty in Africa: Nurses who plan to travel can learn a great deal about the situation in Africa. The course gives a frank discussion on how to fight AIDS and solve poverty.

Whether just starting your education or looking for a more advanced nursing degree, you can find tons of help in these 100 cutting edge open courses for nurses.

Not many of us take much care in choosing a healthcare program that suits our needs; we often go with the one that is offered without thinking about how good an option it is for us personally. We do know that a HMO is cheaper than a PPO, so that would tend to make the former more attractive than the latter, but there’s more to either of them than just the cost factor.

A HMO healthcare plan is a good option if:

• You’re the kind of person who hardly falls sick and who rarely needs to see a specialist.
• You’re young and generally healthy.
• You don’t have any chronic illnesses that run in the family and that could affect your health anytime in the near future.
• You have a fixed income and cannot spend too much on healthcare.
• You’re ok with seeing the doctors chosen by organization
• You’re ok with visiting or being admitted to the healthcare facilities that fall within the umbrella of your HMO’s healthcare plan.
• You get a good primary care doctor who is genuinely concerned about your health and is not just seeing you out of a sense of duty. When you’re in a HMO plan, you must see your primary doctor first in the case of any illness, and only if he or she thinks it’s necessary, you’ll be allowed to see a specialist.
• You’re ok with waiting for approval for diagnostic tests instead of having them done the moment you want them to.
• You don’t expect any hospital stays or plan to have any surgeries. Since you cannot plan for medical emergencies, you must be prepared to be hurried out of the healthcare facility because there’s going to be pressure on your doctors to minimize the cost of your in-hospital stay.

A PPO on the other hand is a good option if:

• You can afford to pay more for healthcare
• You prefer to choose your own doctors and healthcare facilities
• You prefer to have more choice in deciding the kind of treatment options open to you.
• You’re willing to pay for a part of your hospital visits and any diagnostic tests that you may need to have.
• You want to see a specialist any time you choose without having to go through your primary care provider.
• You have or are prone to illnesses that make it necessary for you to see a doctor every now and then.

You may need to change your healthcare plan if your circumstances or your health changes, either for the better or the worse.

The worst part of plastic surgery is the initial stage of recovery; the excitement of gaining a new body is a little tempered with the anxiety of how well the operation went and the pain and swelling that are part of the recuperative process. Although plastic surgery is done mostly for cosmetic reasons, it is still surgery and your body is being cut open and subject to various procedures. So you need to take all the precautions that you would with a regular surgery and also be prepared for the following:

• Pain and swelling: Plastic surgery is not a magic wand that when waved gives you a beautifully sculpted body in one stroke. You have to endure the pain that is a part of this process. Some procedures are less painful than others, so talk to your doctor beforehand about methods to cope. You will probably need at least one to three weeks of rest depending on the complexity of your surgery. There may be a considerable amount of swelling too, so you need to be prepared with ice packs and cold compresses.
• Inability to return to work: You’re not going to be able to return to work or make your presence on the social scene immediately because of the bandages and the pain. You need to prepare accordingly by informing your employers or by undergoing the surgery during vacation. When you do return to work, you could find yourself stiffer and more uncomfortable than usual, but this feeling should subside in a few days.
• Inability to lead a normal life: Your pain and bandages are going to restrict your ability to do normal, everyday stuff like driving a car, doing housework and having sex. If you live alone or have small children who depend on you, get someone to stay with you and help out during the recovery period with meals and stuff.
• Mixed emotional feelings: Although you’re going to be looking forward to a new you, you may feel depressed and anxious hoping that everything went ok and that there are no unforeseen complications. It’s ok to find yourself emotional, but make sure that you don’t end up popping pills or hitting the bottle to solve your perceived problems.
• Slow signs of change: Your body does not change overnight after a surgery and you may have to do a little physiotherapy to recover from the operation. So don’t be disappointed if you don’t see immediate signs of change. It takes between two weeks and two months for all the results of the surgery to show. So be patient, and follow your doctor’s instructions to the letter for a speedy and successful recovery after a cosmetic surgery.