FIVE GREAT TWITTER FEEDS FOR NURSES

Twitter Feeds for Nurses

• National Nurses United
• American Nurses Association
• Dan Weberg, PhD, RN
• Nursing Professor
• NYT Health

If you're a nurse or going through nursing school, it might not seem like the best use of your time to follow social media. Social media gossip about celebrities won't help you learn nursing skills or help your patients. However, nursing and health-related social media will provide up to date news, valuable insights, and a little bit of humor. Here are five great Twitter feeds for nurses to follow, learn from and enjoy.

National Nurses United

Follow @NationalNurses on Twitter to get the latest news and updates from America's largest registered nursing union, with over 185,000 members. Led by Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro, National Nurses United is a politically-active organization, advocating for healthcare for all and better working conditions for healthcare professionals, particularly registered nurses. The account provides frequent updates, including live videos and news about legislation and other important nursing-related events.

American Nurses Association

@ANANursingWorld has 70,000 Twitter followers and provides a professional perspective on registered nursing and patient care. The Twitter feed provides regular updates on nursing best-practices, and news about conferences, learning opportunities and nursing specialties. The ANA provides updates on healthcare lobbying efforts and legislative alerts at the state and national level.

Dan Weberg, PhD, RN

Follow @DrNurseDan to get up to date news, videos and information about healthcare systems and innovation. @DrNurseDan is a science educator based in Northern California and works for the Kaiser Permanente healthcare system. He provides information beneficial to all nurses, including leadership practices, and evidence-based healthcare provision. Many videos and pictures keep his Twitter feed lively and informative.

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Nursing Professor

Assistant nursing professor @EducateNurses provides many Twitter posts focusing on nurse health, nurse self-care, and education. You will find book recommendations, seminars, links to helpful articles and tips on how to interact with physicians and other members of professional healthcare teams. As a current nurse educator, @EducateNurses maintains a steady flow of up to date information such as using virtual reality for nurse training, skill-building and best practices.

NYT Health

For your own health as well as your continued nursing education and patient well-being, @nytimeshealth Twitter feed is a steady stream of new information on fitness, new medical research, nutrition, medications, and best-practices. Along with inspirational memes, quotes and recipes, the feed includes in-depth articles discussing important care concepts. One linked article discussed how healthcare professionals could best interact with gay and transgender patients: "We'll tell, just ask." Another link featured nutritional studies that showed how the ever-present juice box in our school lunches is no substitute for a piece of fruit. The article documented studies that showed how convenient juice boxes didn't increase child nutrition and could even harm their health.

Because social media changes so rapidly, better Twitter feeds for nurses could emerge tomorrow and eclipse today's best bets. It's unlikely many future Twitter accounts will provide better, more up to date health news than @nytimeshealth. Once you start following good nursing accounts on Twitter you'll discover resources for jobs, your education, and other opportunities. With ongoing education and conferences happening every weekend across the country, along with rapid evolution in nursing techniques, technology and best-practices, Twitter is one of your best sources for up to date information and content that is relevant to your continued nursing education and future career.