• Melanie M Nedder, Sharon A Levine, Caroline Galligan, Kathleen Ryan Avery, Elizabeth Eagan-Bengston, and Karen M Reilly.
• Melanie M. Nedder is a staff registered nurse in the cardiac intensive care unit at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, Boston, Massachusetts. mnedder@partners.org.
• Crit Care Nurse. 2017 Feb 1; 37 (1): e1-e9.

BackgroundNurses in the cardiac intensive care unit often attend professional education opportunities. However, it is difficult to share this information among nursing staff. Varying schedules, different shifts, and patient acuity limit the amount of time available for peer-to-peer sharing of educational information. A review of the literature revealed scant research on blogging for peer-to-peer education in general and particularly in nursing.ObjectivesTo explore nurses' perception of the effectiveness of using a blog as a forum to provide peer-to-peer sharing of relevant professional education.MethodsUsing a simple, free blogging website, the unit's nursing practice council developed a private blog for educational information sharing among the nursing staff. An online survey was administered to the unit's staff 15 months after the blog was implemented.ResultsMost respondents indicated that they thought the blog is an effective way to share professional education (86%), keeps them abreast of evidence-based practice (81%), and has led to practice change (59%). Nearly 80% of respondents agreed that they are more likely to attend professional conferences, and 62% would consider contributing blog posts.ConclusionThe survey results suggest that blogging may be an effective method of peer-to-peer sharing of education, although more rigorous research is required in this area.©2017 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

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