Nurses Week extravaganza, heart smarts, fun and games

By Carol Lindsay, RN
May 8, 2003

With 2.7 million registered nurses in the United States, it should come as no surprise that a full week is dedicated to celebrating the nurse's contribution to society. First observed in 1954, National Nurses Week begins May 6 and ends May 12, Florence Nightingale's birthday.

For a full history of National Nurses Week, visit www.nursingworld.org/pressrel/nnw/nnwhist.htm. This site contains a promotion kit for Nurses Week to help you get the word out, including a sample press release, news article and letter to the editor.

Nurses got game

Looking for a computer game to play with your children? ThinkQuest is an educational project that offers students and educators the opportunity to create and explore Web-based learning materials. At http://library.thinkquest.org/20465/
games.html, you will find a fun "Connect the Blood Type" game called Bloody Madness.

In this game, you are the doctor (or in our case, the nurse) in charge of an ER. You receive multiple ambulances of patients in need of blood transfusions. The transfusions have to be matched and given before the time clock runs out and a new load of patients arrives. If you don't match the transfusions correctly, your patients die and you get sued for malpractice.

If the blood transfusion game seems too much like a real shift in the ER, you can try to impress your kids with your skill at the genetics and molecular biology games found at the same site.

Cardio tutorial

Interactive Physiology [www.interactivephysiology.com/
demo/home/index.html] was designed for anatomy and physiology students to help them understand rather than memorize their topics. While many of the topics on the site must be purchased, portions of the cardiovascular tutorial are free.

Units on cardiac action potential, the cardiac cycle and blood pressure regulation begin with a list of education goals and use Macromedia Shockwave to present animated slides with corresponding narration. A variety of free worksheet assignments on additional topics also can be accessed.

AIDS stigma

International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world May 12 each year. To support this observance, the International Council of Nurses produces and distributes an International Nurses Day theme kit [http://www.icn.ch/indkit.htm].

This year's theme is "Nurses: Fighting AIDS Stigma, Caring for All." In the kit are a poster and an information packet that includes understanding the stigma of AIDS; statistics about AIDS; the different forms, sources and consequences of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination; interventional strategies to help fight stigma and discrimination; check-off lists; and an HIV prejudice test.