Blogged nursing: analysis of the phenomenon and contextualization in the Spanish setting

Blogging within the health profession has grown in the recent past. This article aims to perform an analysis of the theoretical aspects of blogging, the use by professional nurses and students, benefits for patients, and, finally, an approach to the activities of Spanish nursing blogs. Blogs have great advantages as social communication tools. Immediacy in content update, closeness to information consumers, and compatibility with other Web 2.0 tools are points to be highlighted. Nurses use blogs for education and communication with other health professionals, students, and patients. For patients, therapeutic effects have been demonstrated in using blogging to share their health problems and express their experiential viewpoints. There are about 80 blogs written by Spanish nurses; most of them originated in the period between 2010 and 2012. These blogs are targeted to professionals (59%), patients (20%), or mixed (13%). There is a great heterogeneity in content: informative style (20%), opinion (28%), narrative (9%), experiential (2%), or humorous (2%). Nursing language is present in 15%, research and evidence-based practice in 13%, and protocols, guidelines, and procedures in 11% of them. We propose the need to plan institutional strategies for effective use of Web 2.0 resources as well as the need to unify criteria to provide quality content.