Nursing students who are tired of hauling around heavy -- and expensive --  medical textbooks will be glad to learn that electronic textbooks are taking a big step closer to reality. Software developer ScrollMotion has signed a deal with major textbook publishers, including McGraw-Hill, Random House, Wiley and Kaplan, to adapt their books for the soon-to-be-released Apple iPad. But don’t get too excited just yet. The e-textbook has a ways to go before it becomes widely available to students in nursing programs and elsewhere. Of course, publishers love the idea of creating electronic versions of their medical textbooks -- because of the savings in printing, production and storage costs, as well as the ability to update the books virtually.  And e-books have features that are particularly useful for the student, such as instant access to specific references; and brighter, more realistic graphics. Yet, electronic health textbooks have been slower coming to market than other educational materials such as medical journals, manuals and study guides. This is in part due to e-books’ limited technical capabilities and interactivity, which has held down demand among nursing students and others.  That is about to change. As McGraw-Hill executive Rik [+]

Nurses, take note: There’s a hot new product coming to many U.S. hospitals, and it’s going to make your job as a traveling nurse easier – because it makes the patients happier! The product is Arizant Inc.’s Bair Paws, a layered-paper hospital gown that keeps the wearer warm by using a forced-air system to regulate the body temperature in the chilly operating rooms and other areas of the hospital. These single-use gowns are easily self-regulated for temperature, and they also detach quickly from the hose that goes to the air pump – giving the patient more independence, and the registered nurses more freedom!  Bair Paws were also designed with lots of Velcro and ways of being opened, so that they can be adjusted in a variety of ways by doctors and RNs performing operations and other procedures. The gown has other advantages, according to Arizant Web site: “This budget-friendly gown can also help avoid the significant costs associated with the complications of unintended hypothermia, which has been shown to triple the rate of wound infection (SSIs), extend the length of hospital stay and increase mortality rates.” About 1,700 facilities are using Bair Paws, with more [+]

It’s a certainty that somewhere down the road, travel nurses will start to miss their families—but now, thanks to Skype.com, any vacationer or on-the-go professional can access high quality communication that’s almost as good as being there. Skype.com proves we’ve come a LONG way since Alexander Graham Bell hooked us up with telephones. Travel nursing careers are compelling stuff, and as good a reason as any to utilize Skype’s services. When traveling nurses want to share tales of their daily adventures, Skype (rhymes with pipe) almost makes it possible to literally “reach out and touch someone” for free! Skype’s video conferencing feature was developed in January of 2006, and has gained much of its notoriety from use on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Talk show hosts and traveling professionals alike use Skype to do everything but clink coffee cups with the person they’re video conferencing; the quality is that crystal clear—in fact, examples of what Skype can do include, from Oprah.com, in progress music lessons, wherein the teacher and her pupil are on opposite sides of the world! But Skype doesn’t have to be that high-tech. You can also use it to make voice calls over the internet and [+]