If you are helping a patient or family with nursing home placement or you'd like to evaluate comparative nursing home data, visit Nursing Home Compare at www.medicare.gov/Nhcompare/Home.asp.

The site contains detailed information about the performance of every Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing home in the country. It includes information on owners of the nursing homes, licensed beds, inspection results and number of licensed staff.

This resource allows for direct comparison of state and national facilities. At the site, you can enter the name of a nursing home or group of nursing homes and compare resident measures, such as the number of residents who are physically restrained, have pressure sores, bowel and bladder incontinence, are bedfast, have decreased joint motion, unplanned weight loss or weight gain, and behavioral symptoms.

The comparison search gives the national average of patients in the category chosen as well as the state average.

Surgical points of view
The Web site of Johnson & Johnson Gateway (www.jnjgateway.com) has a link exclusively for nurses. The link provides access to an online edition of Point of View, a magazine published three times a year for operating room, obstetric and emergency department professionals by ETHICON Inc. and ETHICON Endo-Surgery Inc.

Nurses also can request a complimentary mailed subscription. A wound closure manual and detailed information regarding Johnson & Johnson products and their procedures for use are also available.

Online resources include videos, telesurgeries and PowerPoint presentations. Resources are available on a variety of topics that include biopsy procedures, the harmonic scalpel, dermabond and medication mixing instructions.

Practical communication
The Oregon State University Extension Family and Community Development site (http://osu.orst.edu/dept/ehe/nutrition.htm) offers tools to help nurses communicate with low-income, low-literacy and culturally diverse audiences.

This resource provides direction on how to write reader-friendly material for patients and how to identify nonreaders. Site features include links to information on adult literacy, learning disabilities and adult education.

Information on cultural diversity includes cultural proverbs, holiday and festival traditions, models for embracing differences and a list of recommended readings and links. Guidelines also are available for basic living skills, information in Spanish, nutrition education, diet-health nutrition and development.

Patient network
Supportpath.com (www.supportpath.com) is a resource for patients who want to link with others with a similar illness or condition. The site allows people with health, personal and relationship issues to share their experiences through message boards and online chat. Support-Group.com is intended as a supplement to a participant's medical treatment.

The site lists support groups by diagnosis and allows users to link to information about local support groups and organizations, as well as national and international organizations, personal pages, mailing lists and professional resources.

Medication safety
For information about a medication safety in-service, check out Improving Medication Safety (www.aha.org/medicationsafety/medsafety.asp). The American Hospital Association has developed an initiative to improve patient safety by reducing medication errors.

The goals of the initiative include building awareness of medication safety, obtaining a commitment to improvement and changing behavior by disseminating information about safe medication practices and methods for reducing errors.