The Very Inspiring Blogger Award

I extend deep gratitude to both Carol Gino and The Nursing Site Blog for nominating Digital Doorway for The Very Inspiring Blogger Award. This is an award given by bloggers to fellow bloggers who inspire them and who are motivated to maintain the blogosphere as a beautiful place.

The Very Inspiring Blogger Award has a goal of honoring bloggers, and to honor and learn more about the people behind the blogs that we nominate. The rules that accompany the award are the following:

The first rule is that I am asked to share seven or eight facts about myself. Here we go.....

1. I'm been married to the writer, coach, and performer/monologue facilitator Mary Rives. We've been best friends since 1989. 
2. Our son and his wife life in Boston, and work in careers related to medicine and public health. 
3. In September of 1985, I bought a one-way ticket to England and spent 12 months hitchhiking and traveling around Europe, Israel, and Morocco. I still have several very close friends from that time, as well as many cherished memories of being a freewheeling 21-year-old set loose in the big wide world.
4. In my early adulthood, I attended and subsequently dropped out of two art schools in Philadelphia. Now I doodle, paint a few watercolors, and have created two fun cartoon characters that I eventually hope to publish and bring to the public.
5. Between 2000 and 2004, Mary and I traveled to a very poor area of Jamaica on four different occasions, organizing hygiene and sanitation education for people living in the bush, building a home for a needy family, and working with orphaned children in a rural hospital. We still have a very good friend there, and we are putting his son---our godson---through school for the long-term. 
6. My mother was a Juilliard-trained classical pianist, and I have many relatives on her side of the family who are famous musicians and artists. 
7. After 45 years living in the northeastern US (mostly in New England), I'm happier than ever living in the expansive and beautiful desert southwest.
8. I became a nurse at 31, and have had a very happy two decades in my chosen profession. 

Here are the fifteen blogs that I'm nominating for this award:

1. The Nursing Site Blog, Kathy Quan's excellent and informative nursing blog. 
2. Carol Gino's nursing blog, which is only a fraction of the amazing content that she has produced for decades. 
3. Elizabeth Scala's fantastically uplifting and empowering blog for nurses who want to care for themselves and create lives of magic and joy.
4. Renee Thompson's blog at RTConnections.com, which garners awards for a reason. From bullying and harassment to certifications and clinical excellence, Renee always nails it. 
5. Katie Klieber's contemporary, fun, and up-to-date Nurse Eye Roll blog, replete with humor and serious nursey stuff. 
6. Innovative Nurse, the excellent blog focused on nurses and their business ventures, from my business partner and friend, Kevin Ross (also of RNFM Radio fame, of course). 
7. NurseGail, a blog spearheaded by the amazing Gail Ingram, with multiple contributors sharing their opinions on sex, health, medicine, nursing, and everything in between. 
8. Confident Voices, the blog by Beth Boynton, an advocate and expert on communication for nurses and healthcare professionals. Beth knows what she's talking about! 
9. My Strong Medicine by the inimitable Sean Dent, a nursing expert and new podcast host over at the Change of Shift Podcast. 
10. For all things tech, you can't find anyone more savvy and knowledgeable than Brittney Wilson, The Nerdy Nurse. If you want to learn about 21st-century stuff, Brittney's your gal. 
11. The Adventures of Nurse Niki by nurse blogger Juliana Paradisi is a fictional nursing blog that is so close to real like, you'll swear it's not fiction. Check it out. 

There are so many incredible blogs out there---by nurses and non-nurses---that it's hard to just name 15. So, for the next four of my 15, I'll point you, dear reader, to four lists of the top blogs, and you can spend some time perusing the plethora of choices that are available to you out there in the nursing blogosphere:

1. Aspen University's 2013 list of the top nursing blogs 
2. Rasmussen College's 2013 list of their 24 favorite nursing blogs
3. Top RN to BSN's list of their 50 top nursing blogs for 2015 
4. eMedCert's 2014 list of their 10 fave nursing blogs 

So there you have it, folks. You didn't just get 15 top nursing blogs; I actually cheated, shared 11 of my faves, and then pointed you to four lists that could keep you reading and shopping around for more time than you could possibly have on your hands.

When you're sitting at your computer, glued to your seat, dehydrated, and can't possibly tear yourself away from the plethora of awesome nursing blog content out there, you can blame Nurse Keith for your decubiti, kidney stones, and skeletal frame resulting from not eating for days on end as you continue to fixate on reading every compelling blog post you can find.