Why Should Nurses Care About These Things Called Podcasts?

In a world where nurses never have enough time, podcasts are a great way to maximize your learning with the little bit of time you do have. Learn something new everyday when you’re traveling, exercising or relaxing. Podcasts are a no-muss no-fuss answer to the age old complaint of not having enough hours in a day.

Why Should Nurses Care About These Things Called Podcasts?

The better question to ask first is, "What the heck is a podcast?"

The garden variety dictionary definition:

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A digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

It's an on-the-go recording that you can listen to at your leisure, on your own time, when you have the time. The recording itself can be virtually anything you can think of. There are story telling podcasts, interviews, topic gathering, information sharing and fact finding podcasts. There are how-to podcasts, podcasts that actually teach you how-to podcast. Podcasts that can walk you through starting a business, becoming an entrepreneur, how to run a business, marketing secrets. There are podcasts just for listening to music, and there are podcasts for watching videos!!

The list truly is endless. The type of podcast you choose to listen to is only limited by your imagination and effort you make searching for them.

Ironically podcasting has been around for decades, once called audio broadcasting. It was actually referred to as 'audio blogging' for a short time, but thanks to Steve Jobs and his visionary company Apple (you may have heard of it) who invented this little thing called the iPod the name podcast was created.

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The word "podcasting" is a portmanteau combining the words "broadcasting" and "iPod." In case you have had your head in the sand recently or don't keep up with popular technology an iPod is a portable music player produced by Apple Computers. Apple was lucky/smart enough that their brand was wrapped into a term for a new technology much like the Sony Walkman becoming the popular name for a portable radio/cassette player or inline skates being called "rollerblades", which is brand name for a company that produced inline skates.

What is a Podcast?

So, now that you have a brief idea of what a podcast is. How does this podcast-thingy work?

It's easy-peasy. You need two things.

  1. An actual "Podcast" that produces an RSS feed
  2. A podcatcher system/program/application

So. RSS? What the heck is that? Check out this quick description:

Sean is an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner, host of The Change of Shift Podcast and has been a Nurse blogger 10 years. He's a mentor, educator, leader, coach and consultant (#asktheNP). His website, Sean P. Dent, MSN, ACNP-BC, CCRN - The Host of The Change of Shift Podcast. Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. Mentor. Leader. Coach. Consultant. is a social media vault for all nurses across their career spectrum who are seeking guidance on how to succeed.

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In a nutshell you use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to syndicate or subscribe to the feed of a website, blog or almost any media content online (not just articles, it can be music, video or almost any digital media). By syndicating you subscribe to the feed of the site which means you do not have to go visit the website to read the latest content. Instead you use feed reading software or a website to read the latest articles. Instead of going to each of your favourite sites individually you can collect all the feeds of the sites (provided they make them available) in one place. The purpose of syndication is to therefore make it more efficient for you to consume your favourite content.

What is RSS and How Do I Use It?

RSS is a fancy-shamncy way to gain access to any piece of multimedia (when you subscribe to a topic or article within allnurses.com, RSS is being used). You don't need to understand the guts or inner workings of RSS, just know it exists and whatever podcast you choose to listen to must offer/have an RSS feed (99.9% of them do, so don't worry)

Now that podcatcher. It's a program that 'catches' your podcasts. A program/website/mobile app that catches those pesky RSS feeds and makes them available for you to listen to. Most of us listen to podcasts from our mobile phone/device.

Ironically those of you who have an iPhone... you already have a pre-installed podcatcher... it's called the "Podcasts" app on you iPhone. For android users you'll actually have to download one (you can Google podcast or podcatcher for a list of apps).

That's it. Simple and easy.

Now once again, why should a Nurse care about Podcasts?

Wholly cow! Think about it. You can access thousands (if not millions) of free media to download onto your device to access and listen to at your own leisure. On your own time.

Is that NOT the number one complaint of every Nurse? Whether a student or practicing Nurse.. time is not abundant. We barely get time to eat, pee or sleep. Podcasts monopolize on your time management.

Listen to a podcast while on your commute. Maybe during your workout? Maybe during a meal break at work? Maybe in-between classes? All of those time-buffers when you are moving from one thing to the next... a great way to learn something new!

I'll finish by listing a handful of Podcasts that would benefit ANY Nurse out there:

  1. The Change of Shift Podcast The Change of Shift – Where Nursing meets the Internet - Where Nursing meets the internet. They discuss current events, impactful stories and invaluable lessons from the front lines of Health Care. (Full disclosure, this is a Podcast I host)
  2. The Nursing Show Nursing Show Podcast - For Nurses by Nurses -Every weekly Nursing Show episode features news, tips and tricks, medication information, nursing career interviews, education and commentary for nurses, RN, LPN, BSN, and nurse students, and anyone interested in general medical information.
  3. NRSNG Show (NCLEX® Prep for Nursing Students) NRSNG | Helping Nursing Students Succeed. Period. I Help Nursing Students Succeed. Period. Free Nursing School and NCLEX Cheat Sheets at NRSNG.com/freebies Welcome to the NRSNG Show from NRSNG.com . . . #1 Nursing Podcast and the leader in nursing student education. New motivational episodes 2-3 times per week
  4. EMCrit Podcast - Critical Care and Resuscitation EMCrit Blog - Emergency Department Critical Care & Resuscitation Help me fill in the blanks of the practice of ED Critical Care. In this podcast, we discuss all things related to the crashing, critically ill patient in the Emergency Department. Find the show notes at emcrit.org.
  5. The Elective Rotation: A Critical Care Hospital Pharmacy Podcast Critical Care Pharmacy Resources The Elective Rotation delivers unbiased & valuable critical care and hospital pharmacy content from a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist.
  6. The FlightBridgeED Podcast http://www.flightbridgeed.com/ The FlightBridgeED Podcast provides convenient, easy to understand critical care medicine education, and current topics related to the air medical industry.
  7. RNFM Radio Show http://rnfmradio.com/ RN.FM is a revolutionary Internet radio station for nurses and by nurses. Our mission is to challenge and expand the common understanding of what it means to be a nurse.

I'm always available for blog or podcast questions. I'd love to hear from you.

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seanpdent

About seanpdent, ADN, BSN, MSN, APRN, NP

People ask me questions, and I answer them. Acute Care NP | Storyteller | Author | #tattoo #nurse YouTuber | Ebb & Flow | #heysean #coffeegeek

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I enjoy your youtube channel Sean! thx

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Specializes in NICU, Newborn and Maternal Health.

Podcasts are awesome! I'm so addicted to podcasts that people at work tease me because I have a podcast for everything. I have a specific podcast that I love and always makes me smile that I save to listen to on the way to work. I know it will always put me in a good mood. I would love to get into more nursing podcasts! Thanks for the list.

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#3 - Thank you!!

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