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Nursing is a career that involves continuous learning. Meaning, you will want to have all of the best tools to support that learning. A nursing journal is one of the best, go-to tools a nursing student can have on hand.
This is especially true for many BSN programs. As you will spend majority of your time citing information from current scholarly articles for papers in APA format.
What are Nursing Journals?
A nursing journal is a collection of articles and case studies, many of which are peer-reviewed. These journals allow current and future health care professionals to read up on hot nursing topics. Topics that have an impact on nursing practice and education.
Nursing journals are specialized publications for nurses specifically. Meaning you won’t see them when you’re in line to check out at the supermarket. There are plenty of other specialized health and medical journals out there, but of course, we’re focusing on the nursing-specific ones here.
Another reason that you may not see the physical publications of these journals too often is due to the rise in digital publication usage. I personally encourage the use of digital publications over the printed version for multiple reasons. Reasons like saving trees and ease of accessibility just to name a few.
For instance, with a digital journal you can quickly search and jump to the exact topics you are looking for. Bigger bonus, online journals often have the APA citation available right there on the webpage.
Why Students Will Benefit from a Nursing Journal, Even After Graduating
Being a nurse means you will constantly be learning something new. You’ll always be on the hunt for knowledge. The best resources to get that knowledge is a huge part of the role of nursing. We all know that college usually comes with a research project or two. In nursing school specifically, you will need specific research material. Nursing journals contain that exact material.
Access to a Ton of Scholarly Articles
I can’t speak for all nursing programs, but I’ve had to write two annotated bibliographies just during my ADN. Finding articles that qualify as resources can be a major pain in the butt. Especially when your instructor sets a certain time frame parameter such as the article seeing to be from within the past 5 years.
Nursing journals, especially the online ones, come with access to tons and tons of articles that are great for annotated bibliographies and are generally very current. Not to mention a lot of nursing journals come with the option to keep up with your CEU’s (Continued Education Units. A necessary evil of working in this field. All for free within these journals. Just having read the article that you needed for your class, and answering a few questions qualifies you for a few CEU hours.
Keep up with Latests Evidence-Based Practice Advancements
Instructors reference these things all the time in class. “According to evidence-based practice…blah blah blah..on with the lecture…” I say blah blah blah, but now that I’ve been in practice for over two years now, I have come to see the value in evidence based practices in nursing.
As medicine continues to rapidly evolve new techniques and drugs are constantly being put into practice. Just as quickly, old practices are becoming obsolete. Which is just as important as keeping up with what’s new.
It really doesn’t take much to become behind on the times as a nurse. This is especially important to keep in mind if you work part time or per diem as a registered nurse. Since you spend more time away from the hospital than you do in it.
Free CEU’s
Every year nurses are required to do so many CEU hours, and these things aren’t free on their own usually. Just when you thought you were done with school, you realize being a nurse means forever being a student.
If you are working as an RN and also attending classes for your BSN, those classes will cover you for required CEU hours if you are audited randomly. Once you are out of school, that’s a different story. It varies from state to state, but the board of nursing likes to see a certain number of CEU on record.
With online nursing journals (and physical publications) there are tons of opportunities to earn CEUs, even just by reading an article that you need for a class paper. Easy enough to keep track of too, since usually the online subscription will have a way of keeping record of ones that you have completed.
What Nursing Journal Should I Check Out?
There are dozens of great nursing journals out there. A lot of which cater to specialized fields of nursing, such as critical care or pediatric nursing. But there are also generalized journals as well as ones that are made specifically for new nurses.
Below, are a few of the nursing journals that I have come across and have found to be super helpful while getting through school as well as in practice.
Wolters Kluwer
You may recognize their logo from your Lippincot Q&A NCLEX-RN prep book. You know, that little blue and green circle with the red dot in the center?
Their company oversees Lippincott products as well as the following 3 magazines. The great thing about subscribing through Wolters Kluwer is that you will have access to all three of their journals within one subscription.
Although each journal is published under the same company, they each serve their own unique purpose to nurses and nursing students alike.
Nursing 2021
After being founded in 1971, Nursing 2021 shot straight up to major success. To this day, the masterminds behind this publication strive to provide current and applicable content to their many readers.
Each monthly issue (digital and physical) comes with 2 CEU features included. To help bedside nurses keep up with new information and trends in nursing care, as well as requirements for their own licensure.
Physical paperback issue: $29.90/1 year subscription (12 publications/year)
Online version: $24.95/1 year subscription
Nursing Made Incredibly Easy
This particular subscription stems from an older, successful book series called “Incredibly Easy!” for nurses. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy aims to help nurses keep up with current educational needs, as well as providing simplified breakdown of common clinical challenges.
This journal is a great asset for soon-to-be nurses as well as those who have already been in practice for some time. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy pairs well with other journals like Nursing 2021 or the American Journal of Nursing.
This journal also features “multiple” CEU opportunities in each issue. In addition to articles that were written by experienced nurses who want to share their wisdom with those who are following in their footsteps.
Physical paperback issue: $29.90/1 year subscription (12 publications/year)
Online version: $24.95/1 year subscription
American Journal of Nursing
The American Journal of Nursing is an award winning publication that has been around since 1900. The AJN even holds the title of being one of the 100 Most Influential Journals in Biology and Medicine in the past 100 years. They also feature a number of CEU’s in their journal as well.
What else can be said? Their reputation speaks volumes in itself.
The AJN also has this amazing blog here called Off the Charts. Also worth a read!
Physical paperback issue: $33.90/1 year subscription (12 publications/year)
Online version: $28.95/1 year subscription
The American Nurse Journal
This journal isn’t published by Wolter Kluwer like the previous three. The American Nurse is the official journal of the ANA (American Nurse Association). Their publication is strictly clinical and aimed at being education and informational.
So of course they also offer plenty of chances to earn CEU’s. This journal would certainly be beneficial to students and their class work, but may not be the journal for you if you become bored by a constant flow of clinical articles, without a few personal/humourous accounts woven in as well.
Physical paperback issue: $36.97/year Their Print Plus subscription includes 10 printed issues and 2 digital ones annually
Online version: $14.97/year for 12 digital issues emailed monthly.
I Recommend Going for a Digital Nursing Journal subscription for 3 Reasons:
Personally, I’m one of those people who, if I had physical magazine being sent to me monthly I would have to dedicate an entire closet for storage of them. I’m also much more apt to read them when they are digital and accessible everywhere I go.
- It’s cheaper
- It saves trees
- You have access to all previous publications along with loads of scholarly articles that you can download and utilize for school projects.
I speak from experience when I say that subscribing to one of these nursing journals while in nursing school, and after graduation, is well worth the money. Between keeping up with nursing trends and practices, as well as license requirements, you can’t really go wrong with any one of these great journals.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of the above magazines. I just found them all to be great publications that might come in handy to the new, up-and-coming nursing students as well as any that have been out in the field for some time.
[…] Nursing journals, physical or online, also contain opportunities for CEUs. Some of these opportunities are paid while sometimes you might come across free opportunities. You will want to make sure to keep record of any hours you’ve completed outside of your workplace. […]