T he m u c h v a u n t e d i n fo rma t ion h i g h w a y is cer- t a i n l y in t h e n e w s la te ly , b u t w h a t is i t d o i n g in

a n u r s i n g journa l? Does an a r t i c le a b o u t i t he r e m e a n t h a t you wi l l b e e x p e c t e d to m a s t e r y e t a n o t h e r n e w

t e c h n o l o g y ? I t ' s no t r e q u i r e d yet , b u t i t is w o r t h c o n s i d e r i n g .

Le t ' s see h o w n u r s i n g can t a k e a d v a n t a g e of t h e In- t e rne t .

What is Interaet? T h e In te rne t , a l so k n o w n a s t h e i n f o r m a t i o n h i g h - w a y (or s u p e r h i g h w a y ) , is a n e t w o r k of c o m p u t e r s c o n n e c t e d so t h a t a n y one c o m p u t e r can c o m m u n i - c a t e w i t h a n y o the r one. T h e c o m p u t e r n e t w o r k c o n c e p t d e v e l o p e d d u r i n g the Cold War w i t h t he ARPANET, a d e f e n s e n e t w o r k d e s i g n e d to func t ion e v e n if a t o m i c w a r o b l i t e r a t e d t o p - d o w n c o m m a n d a n d cont ro l s t ruc tu res . Because of i ts w e b l i k e s t ruc- ture , e v e n if one c o m p u t e r s y s t e m (node) w a s lost, c o m m u n i c a t i o n cou ld c o n t i n u e u n i n t e r r u p t e d a m o n g o the r n o d e s s i m p l y b y r o u t i n g s i g n a l s a r o u n d t h e d i s r u p t e d node .

What does Internet offer? I n t e r n e t offers c o m m u n i c a t i o n a n d i n f o r m a t i o n b y a l l o w i n g c o n n e c t i o n to a n y of i ts m e m b e r c o m p u t e r s y s t e m s , w h i c h is v a l u a b l e b e c a u s e of t h e f i les a v a i l a b l e on them. W h a t k i n d of fi les? " T h e r e a re m o r e t h i n g s in h e a v e n a n d e a r t h [and on t h e In ter - net] , Horat io , t h a n a r e d r e a m t of in your p h i l o s o p h y " (from S h a k e s p e a r e ' s Hamlet, q u o t e d from Hos t = s p i n a l t a p . m i c r o . u m n . e d u . T i t l e / s h a k e / T r a g e d i e s / H a m l e t / A c t I; b r a c k e t e d p h r a s e a d d e d ) . In a d d i t i o n to t h e c o m p l e t e w o r k s of S h a k e s p e a r e , I n t e r n e t h a s t he Cen t r a l I n t e l l i g e n c e A g e n c y ' s World Fact Book, t h e King J a m e s v e r s i o n of t he Bible ( s e a r c h a b l e b y k e y w o r d or ph ra se ) , t h e U.S. Cons t i tu t ion , t h e t ex t of t h e Koran, t h e c o m p l e t e t e x t of Alice in Wonder- land, a n d t h o u s a n d s of such re fe rences , i n c l u d i n g

Mr. Rogers is a staff nurse IV, University of Missouri Hospitals and Clinics, Columbia, Missouri. He has been on-line since Au- gust 1993. His E-mail address is grogers@bigcat.missouri.edu.

a c c e s s to t he L ib r a ry of Congress . W h a t e l se does I n t e r n e t offer? P i c t u r e s - - p i c t u r e s of t h e c o m e t Shoe- m a k e r - L e v y 9 s m a s h i n g into Jup i t e r , a v a i l a b l e from N a t i o n a l A e r o n a u t i c s a n d Space A d m i n i s t r a t i o n c o m p u t e r s , of a r t w o r k in t h e Da l las m u s e u m , of c o m i c book cover a r t f rom San Franc isco . T h e r e is a file w i t h more t h a n 200 l a w y e r jokes, a n d one d e s c r i b i n g a u n i v e r s i t y e x t e n s i o n s e r v i c e ' s a d v i c e on h o w to g row g r a p e v i n e s . T h e r e a re a lso h u n d r e d s of d i s c u s s i o n g roups , w h e r e you c a n " c h a t " w i t h p e o p l e on a n y n u m b e r of topics . T h e r e a r e Bul le t in b o a r d s y s t e m s , l i s t s e rve r s ( l i s t servs) , U S E N E T s - - all m e t h o d s of c o m m u n i c a t i n g w i t h p e o p l e b y pos t - i ng a n d r e a d i n g m e s s a g e s , e i t he r on an e lec t ron ic b u l l e t i n b o a r d for a n y o n e to read, or to b e e lec t ron- i ca l ly m a i l e d ( E - m a i l e d ) to al l m e m b e r s of t h e g roup w h o h a v e e x p r e s s e d i n t e r e s t a n d " s u b s c r i b e d " (for free) to t h a t group.

E -ma i l is a w a y of s e n d i n g m e s s a g e s to a n y in- d i v i d u a l or g r o u p of p e o p l e w h o h a v e In t e rne t access . T h e s e m e s s a g e s are s e n t d i r e c t l y to the per - son(s ) to w h o m y o u h a v e a d d r e s s e d them, a r r iv ing in t he i r " m a i l b o x e s " in s econds . You can s e n d a form l e t t e r to h u n d r e d s of r e c i p i e n t s as e a s i l y a s to one, a n d for t he s a m e pr ice (free), p r o v i d e d you h a v e the i r E-mai l a d d r e s s e s in your a d d r e s s file. (Com- m e r c i a l so l i c i t a t i ons are s t r o n g l y d i s c o u r a g e d . )

It sounds great! How do I get on the information highway? Firs t , you n e e d a c o m p u t e r a n d a m o d e m , w h i c h is a d e v i c e ( a v a i l a b l e for as l i t t l e as $100 a n d i n c l u d e d w i t h t h e p u r c h a s e of m a n y c o m p u t e r s ) t h a t le ts your c o m p u t e r c o m m u n i c a t e b y m e a n s of t h e t e l e p h o n e . C o m m u n i c a t i o n s so f twa re is an asse t , too. T h e n al l

you n e e d is a t e l e p h o n e n u m b e r for your c o m p u t e r to call , t h u s p u t t i n g you "on- l ine . " Th i s is w h e r e al l

Reprints not available from author. J EMERG NURS 1995;21:160-2 Copyright �9 1995 by the Emergency Nurses Association. 0099-1767/95 $3.00 + 0 18/62/62569

160 Volume 21, Number 2

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those "free" benef i t s of the In ternet are not neces- sar i ly so flee. There are m a n y services ava i lab le tha t charge a fiat month ly connect ion fee, or an hourly fee that is based on your actual use, or some combination of the two. The most well-known services include Compuserve, America Online, Genie, and Prodigy,* bu t there are m a n y others. Many users have access th rough their un ivers i ty affiliations, because a lmost every univers i ty is connec ted to the Internet . My access is p rov ided by a free network (freenet). My freenet is a service offered by my publ ic l ibrary in

conjunct ion wi th our ci ty government , the publ ic school system, and the local universi ty. There are at leas t 25 freenets in North Amer ica (Table 1).

H o w d o I f i n d t h i n g s o n t h e n e t w o r k ? One way to find some th ing is to get into "gopher space" and conduct a Veronica search for it, which is an improved version of the Archie search. (At leas t the technica l t e rms are all in fun.) Being in gopher space m e a n s tha t you have cal led the "gophe r" pro- g ram (crea ted at the Univers i ty of Minnesota, home of the Golden Gophers, hence its name). This p rogram helps you "nav iga t e " from one node on the In terne t to another wi thou t real ly hav ing to know wha t you are doing. Veronica is another p rogram tha t al lows you to type in a key word or phrase; it then searches all the nodes for ma tch ing subjects and p re sen t s them for you to choose from among them.

Don't worry if it doesn ' t make sense. Most ac- cess sy s t ems presen t a menu (a l is t ing of the oper- a t ions ava i lab le on tha t par t icular system), from which you s imply select an item, which usual ly l eads you to another menu, and then to another, un- til you ge t wha t you want. For example , you can se- lect sc ience- re la ted i t ems from a menu; another menu tha t l is ts hea l th - r e l a t ed i tems appears as one of i ts choices, and you can then select nurs ing from the s u b m e n u offered there. These first few s teps p robab ly will not find every s ingle nurs ing item, bu t it is a s ta r t ing point.

What's in it for nurses? First, there are l istservs. These file servers are like a par ty l ine to which you subscr ibe . Any subscr iber m a y submi t a message , which is sent to all other subscr ibers (in the form of E-mail). Generally, some of the other subscr ibers answer the message (with their responses also sent to all subscribers) , and a d ia logue ensues . There are hundreds of l is tservs

*Compuserve, Amer i ca Online, Genie, and !~odigy are registered t rade- marks . No endorsement of these services is intended, See Appendix for further information.

Table 1 Freenets avai lable

Big Sky Telegraph--Dillon, Montana Buffalo Free-Net--Buffalo, N e w York CIAO! Free-Net--Trail, British Columbia, Canada CapAccess--Washington, D.C. Cleveland Free-Net--Cleveland, Ohio Columbia Online Information Network

( COIN)--Columbia, Missouri Dayton Free-Net--Dayton, Ohio Denver Free-Net--Denver, Colorado Detroit Free-Net--Detroit, Michigan Free-Net Erlangen Nuremberg--Nuremberg,

Germany Heartland Free-Net--Peoria, Illinois LaUNChpad--Chapel Hill, North Carolina Lorain County Free-Net--Elyria, Ohio Milwaukee Free-Net--Milwaukee, Wisconsin National Capital Free-Net--Ottawa, Canada Ozarks Regional Online Information Network

(ORION)--Springfield, Missouri Prair/enet Free-Net--Urbana-Champaign, Illinois Rio Grande Free-Net--E1 Paso, Texas Rural Area Information Network (RAIN)--Pilot

Grove, Missouri Taliahassee Free-Net--Tallahassee, Florida Toledo Free-Net--Toledo, Ohio Traverse City Free-Net--Traverse City, Michigan Tri-State Online--Cincinnati, Ohio Vaasa Free-Net--Vaasa, Finland Victoria Free-Net--Victoria, British Columbia,

Canada Youngstown Free-Net--Youngstown, Ohio

devo ted to subjec ts of in teres t to heal th care profes- sionals. Nursene t and Nurseres are devoted to gen- eral nurs ing i ssues and nurs ing research, respec- tively. Nrsing-L is devoted to nurs ing informatics. There are lists devo ted to on-l ine heal th resources, nurs ing theory, medica l l ibraries, computer ized pa- t ient records, g r adua t e level nursing, s tudent nurses, nurs ing educat ion, and pa t i en t care plans.

The American Journal of Nursing's Internet node, the AJN Network at ajn.org, al lows users to read or wri te to forums on e m e r g e n c y nursing, nurs- ing informatics, ethics, and severa l others. The AJN Network lists nurs ing conference schedules and nurs ing organizat ions wi th their addresses . The ne twork also offers on-line cont inuing educat ion courses and a ser ies of pa t i en t educa t ion mater ia l s tha t can be d o w n l o a d e d (copied to your personal computer files).

Other si tes inc lude Night ingale , the Universi ty of Tennessee at Knoxvil le 's nu r s ing node (nightin- ga l e . con .u tkedu- - ]~ -ma i I inquir ies to florence@ night ingale .con.u tk .edu) . N igh t inga l e offers re- sources on a var ie ty of nurs ing subjects, inc luding

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research (grant information, methodology discus- sions, abstracts), practice (conference announce- ments, access to nursing and health organization~, position announcements , discussion groups or list- servs), and a variety of other subjects. It accepts new information from nurses around the world and solicits contributions of announcements and other files from its users. It also allows telnetting (trans- fers to other Internet nodes) to a series of other nursing-related and health-related sites (making the search for other nursing areas on the Internet easier).

NURSE-Warwick (gopher.csv.warwick.ac.uk) is a British nursing node that is fairly extensive. It lists conferences and offers on-line education courses and jobs listings. It has a guide to the Internet writ- ten for nurses, an E-mail list of nursing specialists (both their own and the Nurseres list). Interested users may add their own names. The Nurseres list allows you to indicate a level of expertise ranging from "interested in the latest developments" to "mentor". Nurseres provides a listing of nursing- and health care-related listservs and telnet access to other nursing and health care nodes on the Inter- net, including more international selections of nurs- ing centers, both within the British Commonweal th and others.

The National League for Nursing (NLN) has an E-mail address (nlninform@nln.org), and is plan- ning an Internet node (nln.org). The NLN node will offer an NLN member bulletin board, discussion and consultation groups, the NLN Information Exchange, including research and aggregate databases, con- sumer health care information, public health care forums, and biennial convention information.

The Sigma Theta Tau library (stti-sun.iu- pui.edu) is also available on-line for registered users (password required). Subscriptions for individuals cost $30 per year. Visitors may log on to browse, however, with access granted to the STTI News, which is available on-line. Registered users are given access to on-line research articles and may perform searches of the databases, which include nurse researcher projects, research dissertations, research conference proceedings, information re- sources, and the Image; The Journal of Nursing Scholarship table of contents.

These are some of the resources about nursing available on Internet. The unique aspect of all these resources is not just their availability, or that they can provide otherwise hard-to-find information. It is that they are interactive, immediate, and often responsive to input from their users. They offer not only information, but also communication: commu- nication with other nurses, experts in their field, or

simply fellow nurses who share a common interest or a common problem in a particular area of nursing. This feature makes the Internet and its resources so promising for nursing.

Appendix For more information on the services mentioned in this article, contact the resources listed below:

America Online 8619 Westwood Center Dr. Vienna, VA 22182

Compuserve 5000 Arlington Centre Blvd. Columbus, OH 43220

Genie 401 N. Washington Dr. Rockville, MD 20849

Prodigy 445 Hamilton Ave. White Plains, NY 10601

Nurseenet Moderated by Judy Norris Department of Curriculum Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada E-mail: jnorris@porpoise.oise.on, ca

Nurseres Moderated by Linda Thede School of Nursing Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 E-mail: l thede@kentum.kent .edu

Nrsing-L Moderated by Gordon Larrivee Nursing Administration University of Massachuset ts Medical Center Worcester, MA 01655 E-mail: g lar r ivee@umassmed.ummed.edu

AJN Network c/o Karen DuBois American Journal of Nursing 555 W. 57th St. New York, NY 10019-2961

Nightingale c/o Dr. Terry Moore School of Nursing University of Tennessee Knoxville, TN

NURSE-Warwick Maintained by Denis Anthony Comput ing Services University of Warwick Coventry, CV4 7AL, England

16 9 Vc~ l .~ 21 Number 2