Most years as we welcome the crowds for Fall Rush, Nursing students will browse our shelves looking for various reference titles to supplement their required textbooks – such options as drug guides, anatomical flash cards, early prep guides (and games) for the eventual NCLEX exams, pocket guides like the ever-popular RNotes, and perhaps a bit of inspiration from Florence Nightingale herself.

Of course, this year isn’t like most years, and since we’re closed to the public, it’s difficult for students to get a general overview of what books are available. (Keyword searches of our website are so annoyingly specific.)

To the rescue comes Login Canada’s annual Nursing Reference and Review Catalog. Usually salted along our shelves in a printed format every year, these free catalogs are also available in a PDF format through this link, and include 20 pages of the most popular reference titles among Nursing students. Login Canada is the distributor of the vast majority of our Nursing titles, so the odds are that whatever you’re looking for is available through their warehouses – and there’s also a very good chance that we have it on the shelves here at the bookstore.

So, if you see anything of interest, just give us a call (902-494-3020) or email (jim.regan@dal.ca) to see if we’ve got it in stock (or, if not, if you’d like us to bring it in). Or, you can order directly from the Login warehouses through the Nursing Catalog Listings at our ‘Virtual Bookstore,’ and the books will be shipped directly to your door. (Login is also extending their free shipping offer through October for anything ordered through the Virtual Bookstore.)

It’s all about adapting to the times sometimes…

(Danny Abriel photo)

Just before the week closes, here are a few topical articles from the Dal News page about activities at the Dal School of Nursing…

• A more inclusive birth environment: Addressing the challenges pregnant women in same-sex relationships can face in the maternity ward.
• The power of moms: How research supports more close contact between at-risk newborns and their mothers.

• Improving health care: Dalhousie’s nurse scientists add to health-care understanding and improve patient care.

Next week (May 6-12) marks the annual and international recognition of all the followers of Florence (in fact the timing of the week is linked to Florence Nightingale’s birthday on May 12th of 1820), and in recognition of the celebration, we thought we’d add a few links to our collection.

First and foremost of course, is the Canadian Nurses Association, with information about nursing careers, professional development, and current events.

But if you’re more interested in past than current events, The Canadian Museum of Civilization has an extensive collection of artifacts and documents available online, and offers such specific presentations as, Symbol of a Profession: One Hundred Years of Nurses’ Caps – tracing the evolution of the symbolic head gear from the nun’s coif to the present bare head.

Closer to home, the Nursing History Digitization Project,  developed and maintained by Mount Saint Vincent University, offers a history of nursing training in Nova Scotia. (Including school-specific details. Believe it or not, there have been 25 teaching locations over the years.) In addition to text, stories are told through photos, audio interviews, and such archival glimpses into the past as a 1956 brochure for prospective applicants to the Victoria General Hospital School of Nursing, a 1938 list of student regulations from the Halifax Infirmary, and a slightly more tongue-in-cheek list of Student Nurse’s Commandments from 1950. (“…thou shalt not in the Residence partake of the company of Lady Nicotine.”)

Finally, in terms of reading materials, as an alternative to the standard reference works, Illuminating Florence (available on-line and in store), shows how constant the core goals of the nursing profession have remained over 150 years – as excerpts from her writings are connected to current practices.