Nursing Journals

[allevi]

What does everyone feel the best nursing journal is? We were told throughout school that it is good to subscribe to one, but how do I decide which is the best, Or do most nurses now use forums like these to stay current on nursing issues??

[Jenny P]

I subscribe to AJN (through membership to ANA; also includes The American Nurse), Nursing 2000, RN, Critical Care Nurse, American Journal of Critical Care (both of these are through AACN; and the AACN News is also included in AACN membership), Minnesota Nursing, and I also get Nurse Week and Nursing Spectrum. Each of these has its strong points and weak points; some are more political where others are more focused on generalized nursing skills and technics. I suggest you subscribe to a different one or 2 for a year and see which ones you read. I don't care for the one magazine in which the editor has her own personal agenda, and I definitely find that these forums don't necessarily provide the type of information that I may be looking for when I need to know something important aboout a disease or nursing problem.

[OC_An Khe]

You should definetly suscribe to those journals that reflect your area of practise.

Be a member of professional organizations. The nets/ boards can give you useful information but they are not up to the levels of the journals. Outside your specialty I tend to change every couple of years so that I get a broader perspective. I also make use of the hospital library to read the journals I don't routinely suscribe to.