My husband gave me an iPod. I had never thought about getting one, and I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it. I also knew that in a matter of weeks it would end up being lost, just like the 30 pairs of sunglasses I buy each year. I also thought that iPods were only for music, which was fine, but I wasn’t sure when I’d ever use it. When I got around to registering my iPod through iTunes, I saw that podcasts were available, and I became excited.

Very excited.

Podcasts are similar to talk radio shows. They focus on almost every topic, ranging from cooking to news to travel to fashion. Some, like “The Onion Radio News,” are very funny, while others, like “Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders,” are formal lectures. Many podcasts are free. I currently subscribe to 21 freebies. They run anywhere from one minute to an hour. I have learned to listen to podcasts to help me get through things that I hate to do, such as running, cleaning the house, shopping for groceries, and waiting in lines.

Here are a few of my favorites covering health and medical topics:

• 101 Tips to Improve Your Nursing Career—David Woodruff, MSN, RN, CNS, and President of Ed4Nurses, Inc. hosts this podcast. This podcast is very short—most sessions are under two minutes. 
• Medical Matters—This podcast is distributed by the British Broadcasting Company (a major British media company), and it covers a different topic each week. Some recent topics have included Downs Syndrome and organ donation. You get to hear from medical doctors, health care specialists, patients, and their families.
• Medically Speaking—This podcast is produced by the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Information is presented on ways of recognizing certain medical conditions, how they are treated, and how one might prevent them.
• National Institutes of Heath (NIH) Podcast—If you want to know about current research being conducted by the National Institutes of Health but are not a research scientist, this is your podcast. Recent topics have covered areas like cervical cancer and stem cells. 

I absolutely love my iPod. As I expected, I lost my first one, and I now listen to “Michelle’s iPod the Second.”

If you ever see me waiting in the check-out line at Target looking very focused, I’m probably in the middle of a podcast. Happy listening!

Please share any health or medical podcasts to which you subscribe.

From: Michelle Maack Friederichs, Director of Residential Faculty Development and Educational Quality