Human factors and online learning.

A human factors approach to patient safety offers a means of minimising the incidence and effect of adverse events in the healthcare setting. This article explains how human factors informed the development of an online patient safety course by the Royal College of Nursing. It also describes a novel educational technique called action mapping, which was used to design the online learning course.

Accountability and responsibility: principle of nursing practice B.

This is the third article in a nine-part series describing the Principles of Nursing Practice developed by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in collaboration with patient and service organisations, the Department of Health, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, nurses and other healthcare professionals. The article discusses Principle B, the need for accountability and responsibility in the provision of nursing care.

NMAP: UK's nursing Internet gateway.

This article describes the development of NMAP, the UK academic gateway to high-quality Internet resources for Nurses, Midwives and Allied health Professionals. The service is described and the rationale for NMAP summarized, focusing on the increasing use of Internet resources in nursing education and practice. International concerns over the quality of health information available on the Internet are considered, and the approach adopted by NMAP to quality filtering described. The usage data and results of evaluation studies show the need for this type of Internet gateway, and some of the lessons may be relevant to others involved in developing national high-quality Internet gateways for nurses.