A Voyage Through Pregnancy

By Carol Lindsay, RN
March 27, 2002

The visible embryo at www.visembryo.com has a spiral design that allows the user to click on an embryo at various stages of development.

The first trimester of pregnancy is detailed in 23 separate stages. The second and third trimester of pregnancy are discussed at two-week intervals. As you navigate through the 40 weeks of pregnancy, you can preview the unique changes that occur at each stage of human development.

Each stage provides a picture beginning at conception and continuing through the cell division process, the zygote, the embryo and-as the pregnancy progresses-the fetus. With each stage of progression, there is an in-depth description of what changes are occurring, from time of conception, cell division, placental development and organ development to later stages of fetal maturing.

This is an excellent site for reviewing embryology or to recommend to expectant parents who want to follow their baby's development.

The site also features a game in which you use your mouse to guide a newly fertilized oocyte through the fallopian tube and into the uterus without causing an ectopic pregnancy. This is a great visual for explaining to patients and students how and why ectopic pregnancies occur.

Global scale

The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools was established as an immigration-neutral organization committed to ensuring that nurses educated in countries other than the United States are eligible and qualified to meet licensure and other practice requirements in the United States.

Through its Web site at www.cgfns.org, the commission offers nurses educated in foreign schools the opportunity to take qualifying exams in their own country before they come to the United States. Information on application and fee schedules as well as a career center and links to recommended resources also are available.

Applicants may use a service that evaluates education and licensure obtained outside of the United States and compares them with U.S. standards. For employers, the site provides answers about certification, credential evaluation services, visa screening, credentialing and immigration.

12-lead ECGs

For those who have conquered the 3-lead ECG and are ready to move on to the 12-lead, visit the ECG library at www.ecglibrary.com/ecghome.html, which includes realistic recordings of 12 leads to sharpen your ECG interpretation skills.

The site features common 12 leads, such as ischemic heart disease and the various heart blocks, as well as some unusual ECGs, including heart transplants, pulmonary embolus, implantable cardioverter defibrillators and digitalis effect. A brief explanation of the electrical axis and a not-so-brief history of electrocardiography also is provided.

The history begins with the introduction of the word electrica in 1600 and the electrical shocking and subsequent electrical cardioverting of a chicken in 1775.

Beyond pain relief

Nurses are on the frontlines when it comes to addressing patients' pain. When questions arise about pain control or developing policies and procedures to address pain control, www.ampainsoc.org is an excellent resource.

The American Pain Society is a multidisciplinary organization of basic and clinical scientists, practicing clinicians, policy analysts and others whose mission is to advance pain-related research, education, treatment and professional practice. The society's goals are to advance treatment of people in pain by ensuring access to treatment, removing regulatory barriers and educating practitioners and policy-makers in all settings.

The society created the phrase we have seen often in recent literature, "Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign." Visit this site to read the society's latest position statements on pain and keep up-to-date on policies and advocacy efforts regarding pain and pain relief in all aspects of health care.

Information age

If you are a nurse who loves computers, a career in nursing informatics may be of interest. Nursing informatics is one of the newest specialties in professional nursing. It is a combination of nursing science, information process theory and computer science designed to assist in the management of and processing of nursing data, information and knowledge to support the practice of nursing and delivery of nursing care.

Nursing informatics takes into consideration that nursing knowledge is substantially different from other health-related disciplines, and that nurses use problem-structuring and knowledge-structuring principles that are different than those of physicians to make decisions. Informatics nurses can obtain certification through the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

For more information, visit the American Nursing Informatics Association Web site at www.ania.org.