If you are not sure whether or not you want to commit yourself to nursing or if you are unsure about what nursing entails, Brookside Associates Multimedia has a free series of lessons online about the fundamentals of nursing. While not accredited or transferable, the course contains basic information about patient relations, hygiene, body mechanics, range of motion and environmental health. The course also contains videos and self-testing exercises.
Kaplan University also offers a free, self-directed online course in nursing fundamentals. You will have to purchase the recommended textbooks and the course is non-accredited, but it is an excellent source of information about basic nursing. A much more in-depth series of study than the Brookside course, the ten lessons of Kaplan's Nursing 101 cover a range of topics, including documentation, critical thinking, legal issues, growth and development, nutrition and self-esteem. Each lesson contains reading assignments from the textbooks, questions, writing assignments and online quizzes.
Elsevier Publishing also offers an online program in fundamental nursing skills. Though not free, the program is quite affordable. The course was created by Patricia Potter and Anne Griffin Perry, both registered nurses with master's and doctorate degrees. It covers a great many medical skills and useful topics in nursing. Nursing Skills Online contains 17 technical modules, from catheterization to medication administration to injections. The modules use tables, charts and animation, and the course includes over 700 exercises for self-assessment. At the Nursing Skills Online website, you can take a guided tour of the program and view sample modules for free.
In fact, Elsevier offers an entire series of online nursing skills programs, from simple to complex, through its Mosby's Nursing Skills series. Mosby's Nursing Skills covers more than 830 separate skills. The skills come from major nursing reference textbooks, such as Perry and Potter's "Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques," the "Procedure Manual for Critical Care" and "Nursing Care of Infants and Children." You can view a demo or participate in the free trial of the program before you buy.