Best Nursing Schools - How to Find the Top Schools to Start Or Continue Your Nursing Education

The standard for ranking nursing schools is U.S. News and World Report, which asks deans, administrators, and faculty members to evaluate other schools based on the quality of academic programs and how well students are prepared for a career in nursing. Professionals who hire new graduates also are surveyed to help create the list of the best nursing schools.

There are two more common levels of nurses: ADN (Associate Degree Nurses 2 years of study), and BSN (Bachelor of Science Nurses 4 years of study. Accelerated programs are available for both degrees, especially if you have college credits or a degree in another field. Those with bachelor's degrees can expect to make more money the national average for a BSN is $52,000 and advance to supervisory or management positions more quickly than those with an ADN.

In its most recent rankings for the top nursing schools, U.S. News and World Report put the University of Washington in Seattle at the top of the list, followed by the University of California-San Francisco, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Nursing.

Close behind were the Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, the University of Maryland-Baltimore, the University of Pittsburgh, and Yale University. A total of 395 college nursing programs were examined in the ranking process.

The University of Washington School of Nursing has ranked Number 1 since 1984, when the first national survey on the best nursing schools was conducted (U.S. News and World Report began its rankings in 1993). What sets it apart from the other schools is a good guide to use when choosing what nursing school you wish to attend.

The University of Washington has partnerships with local hospitals that provide on-the-job training, which is perhaps the most important part of learning to become a nurse. Pick a school that is close to at least one good hospital and has an active training program. Other important factors to consider are research opportunities, nursing board passing rates, and class.

Creating a New Buzz Word: Entrepreneurial Author

Self publishing is hard. It is like running your own business. You do all your own finances, marketing, writing and more.

So I'm coining a new title for us self published or indie authors - just to get away from the negative stigma of the phrase "self published".

Entrepreneurial Author.

Now I personally LOVE running my own business but also recognize it may not for everyone.

I feel like I play all the roles that I played when I started my own marketing business and more. This will give you an idea of what you will have to do if you decide to take this journey. 

Writing Side (this one is obvious)

1. Writer - Not a big shocker here. This one is a given :) I guarantee you will do this but it will not be your biggest task. Even if it should or if you want it to be. Finding time to write once you publish is HARD. And as a self pubber - momentum is the key so you have to find ways to keep your name out in front without being obnoxious. So you have to write faster and smarter.
2. Editor - In order to not spend thousands of dollars - you need to be even better at editing. Then you need to use your money wisely and find a good copyeditor or you will pay for more than one.
3. Plotter - You need to grab your reader in the first page. Or as a self pubbed author - you wont get any sales. People are stricter on self pubbed authors so get them immediately.

Publishing Side (this one is expected)

1. Designer - You need to know what looks good for a cover as well as ads or swag or marketing materials and what doesn't. Placement, fonts, and copy. Whether you pay someone or not - you need to KNOW what concept you want and how to define quality design. If you know photoshop, you are even more golden because you can do some things on your own. So learn it if you can. It will save you time and money.
2. Copywriter - You need to know how to write good jacket copy unless you want to pay someone
3. Formatter - Unless you want to pay someone to format.  You will have to format in several different ways, depending on what ebook format you need (epub, mobi, pdf, paperback etc). I think I did four for Untraceable and 3 for On The Bright Side.
4. Researcher - Self publishing is hard and there is so much to learn. You need to be able to get online and find answers to your own questions as well as find questions you should be asking yourself. There is not a detailed guide anywhere. Just bits and pieces. You also need to be keeping up with the ebook/digital market.
5. Typer - I wish I could type faster, If you are a "pecker" (keep it clean) then take lessons.

Business Side (these may surprise you)

1. Budget - You could spend money all day trying to get your book out. Giveaways, swag, ads, covers, etc. So you need to come up with a budget and prioritize your (limited) funds (if you even have ANY :). There is absolutely NO way to do self pubbing for free.
2. Channel Account manager - You need to manage all your author accounts online. Right now with paperbacks and ebook formats - I probably manage and check at least five different sites a day including B&N, Amazon (2 different ones for PB and ebook), Smashwords, as well as all the places Smashwords delivers to (kobo, ibooks etc) - you need to know what your book is doing and check the information. 
3. Inventory - You need to know what you are selling and keep track for your numbers to reconcile records.
4. Accountant - You need to be able to figure out what you should be getting paid from each place. This requires spreadsheets and daily counts.
5. Lawyer - You need to follow up with pirates who are posting your book for free downloads and send legal letters. (trust me this happens more than you think). You also need to follow up because they won't.
6. Marketer - You need to know how to get the word out about your book, have the time to do it, and follow up. This includes understanding your target audience and how to reach them. This is a daily thing that is very time consuming. It includes attending chats, blog tours, giveaways, checking for ad sites, RTing people who are nice enough to tweet about your book. etc. You also need to know what you are doing for marketing - swag, book trailers, signings, etc
7. Social Networker - You need to keep managing all your social networks and stay out in front of people (without being obnoxious.) blogs, twitters, facebook. etc. This is also daily. 
8. Interviewee - You need to be able to fill out tons of requests for interviews, reviews, and more. And you need to find a way to do them quickly while still giving fresh information
9. Advertiser - You need to know what ads you can pay for, what ads are free, and which ones are most effective. This requires looking at free sites and searching for sites to sponsor. Knowing which have good returns and which don't.
10. Publishing Rep - You need to reach out and try to set up PR related activities. You need to write and drop multiple kinds of press releases to different audiences. Contact media for articles/features/ and interviews. Create your own press kits
11. Supporter - You need to support others in their journeys. It is not all about you. And this takes tons of time as well. If you do not support, don't expect any in return.
12. Agent
13. Project manager - When you have cover designs and editors and more than one book going on - you have to manage to a budget and especially to a timeline. You will be managing several different projects at once and they will all be at different stages.
14. Sales - You have to be out there selling (overtly and covertly) without being cheesy about it. You also have to watch overexposure because it can backfire on you. It is a delicate balance.

Miscellaneous

1. Problem Solver - Problems come up daily whether it is your numbers disappearing at amazon, or a blogger who forgot to post an interview, or a price discrepancy. They come up every day.
2. Self Believer - Indies get rejection too. And it hurts. You have to move on and find those who support you instead of chasing the ones who don't.
3. Thanker - You need to thank and reciprocate those people who support you.
4. Multi-tasker - I shift all day long between these roles. It's exhausting.
5. Panicker - you gotta be able to work while you panic. Crying is allowed but your fingers must never leave the keyboard. ;)
6. Night owl - it is when you catch up.
7. Psychologist - i have to talk myself down off a ledge every now and then. Of course I do live in a one story so not too bad. :)

All this along with mother, friend, wife, cleaner, laundry doer, cooker, dog walker, appointment maker.

Last on the list - To find a way to only sleep 6 hours a night and not be a total bear (still working on this one)

Basically, indie pubbing is like running your own business - all by yourself. So all the things a business would do - you would do. It's Entrepreneurial Authoring.

I think that is it. But I'm too brain dead to remember.

What do you think?/ Do any of these surprise you?

If you can think of another one, please add it to the comments. :)

And So It Goes, Again

My comments about the Greek situation yesterday seem to be what the markets now seem to believe too. The transition will continue to feature volatility changes and reaction and re-reaction to news as it both comes out and is then assessed. Opportunity for us all.

I've been looking at sharing what I am doing both intraday and interday. The interday is progressing - more info as we finalise things - but the intraday has a technology issue: the ability to get a Tweet into the Tweetosphere on a live basis. Candace Tweets the blog's posting every day and there are times when the Tweet stream is full and she has to wait. We're looking for a solution so that the tweets are as close to live as possible, as I definitely want to do this and want people to be able to follow along in real time. More info to come.

DAX today was weak from the open. It was "for sale" all morning and if you look at the Market profile you can see how it slid down a two TPO zipper. There was just no volume to hold it. After one attempt at consolidation, it was for sale again as the early risers from the U.S. started hitting it, I think, making a double distribution trend down.

The two EMAs were trending down as was the big CCI. Taking any short trade at the 33 EMA S/R area made money and recognising the trend down was not difficult.

What's Oxford Nanopore up to?

"With Oxford Nanopore's Technology, it may well be possible to sequence a genome for less than $100". This is was what Graham Richards said when he gave a talk here in Cambridge last October. He should know: He founded the Technology Transfer office in Oxford, which has been involved in Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) from the start. He thinks that the company could be the first billion-pound business to be spun out from Oxford University. A recent valuation is already coming close with $1bn.

So far, ONT has not exactly been open about the specifics of its sequencing technology. This is likely to change very soon. On February 15th, the annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) kicks off in Florida, and ONT is expected to make an announcement. A press release on ONT's website promises first sequencing data and a demonstration of "disruptive features". 

ONT is working on two types on nanopore sequencing technology at the same time. In both cases, nucleotides are electronically identified as they pass through a protein nanopore. The difference between the two technologies is that in strand sequencing, the whole DNA molecule passes through the nanopore, whilst in exonuclease sequencing, an enzyme located in front of the nanopore cleaves nucleotides off the DNA one by one, which then pass through the nanopore individually.

The technology presented at the AGBT conference will be strand sequencing. It is unclear what the status of the exonuclease sequencing is, and whether ONT plans to take it forward.

Any guesses what we can expect from Oxford Nanopore at AGBT, and in the next few months?

The Money's Gone!

I had a comment asking why I thought the volumes were down. My reply was:

I think it's a combination of the money that has evaporated from the financial system, fear of the current economic situation and MFGlobal. I suspect that it's mostly the first reason.

When the markets collapsed in the 2007/2008 debacle, it wiped out nett worth. The collapse of real estate had an even more disastrous effect: it made money evaporate. It didn't move money from one person to another, but just caused the money to evaporate. Whether you owned property or a security whose assets were based on mortgages, your money evaporated. Money was created as the real estate bubble inflated and people used the increased "value" as if it was an ATM machine. The assets evaporated and the debts remain. This has had an impact on the ability to buy stocks, derivatives and other financial assets.

To this add the fear generated by the flash crash and the current world economic uncertainty and a drop in transaction volume is understandable.

This transition will continue for some time. Years I believe. But the opportunities are there. The European news today about Greece was tough to believe that any agreements will be kept. The politicians never cease to disappoint me.

There were some nice trades today in many markets including the DAX and Light Crude. Here's one of the charts.

The DAX is my favourite market both for discretionary trading and algo trading. It trades well in both the Euro and U.S. morning time zones. Lots of you guys there in the 'States get up early to trade it, I hear. Good on ya mates!

Protect your passwords, protect your business

Managing your business, even if it's a real-world store with a physical address, is increasingly moving into the online space. With that comes the need to maintain good online security practices to protect both your own information and that of your customers. Behind your password lies a wealth of data that can be very interesting to your competitors and criminals. You should see this data as a commodity, just like the product you are selling. And just like your product, you don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.

Here’s what you can do to help protect your business online:

Use strong, unique passwords. Cyber-criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly decipher passwords. Did you know that one of the most common passwords is actually ‘password’? It’s recommended to use a password with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. Create a unique password that's unrelated to your personal information. For example if you sell flowers, don’t have ‘flowers’ in your password.

Memorize your passwords or keep them secret. Would you leave the key to your office in the door when you leave? Obviously not. Yet many people leave notes by their desks with their most used passwords or leave their screens unlocked. This leaves the door to your systems available to be unlocked by anyone who discovers its passwords. If you have to write down your passwords, keep them in a secret place. If you have to save your passwords on your computer, avoid giving the file an obvious name, such as ‘my passwords.’

Don't re-use passwords for important accounts, especially important accounts like email and online banking. Re-using passwords is risky: if someone figures out your password for one service, that person could potentially gain access to your private email, address, and even your money.

Add extra security. If you have a Google Account, you can install 2-step verification which will add an extra layer of security by requiring you to have access to your phone--as well as your username and password--when you sign in. This means that if someone steals or guesses your password, the potential hijacker still can't sign in to your account because they don't have your phone.

Run regular anti-virus scans. If you get malware on your system, it may be programmed to look for passwords either typed in or saved. And it doesn’t hurt to change your passwords every once in awhile too.

Share these resources with your colleagues to help keep them safe and secure online:

• Online security videos:
• Strong Passwords (also earlier in this post)
• Social Engineering
• Understanding Phishing
  
• Read these tips for staying more secure on the web, including:
• Phishing
• Malware
• Secure sites
• Safe networks
• Mobile security
• Locking your screen
• Google’s security tools

Posted by Katrina Blake Buffini, Risk Analyst

Volumes are Still Falling

Trading volumes are reported to still be falling. This has had an impact on the rhythm of the markets and explains a lot of what we have all been seeing. None the less, there is still plenty of volume, it's just the relative volume that has dropped.


If you are using minute bars, tick bars or volume bars then there may be an impact on your trading pictures. If you are using range bars or Renko bars then the impact on trading pictures will be substantially less in most cases.


As both a discretionary trader or an algo trader, trading pictures should be devised so that they automatically adjust themselves for these changes. Hard wiring $ stops and targets is possible with frequent retesting but it's a lot easier to use dynamic stops and targets that cater for these frequent changes as the transition continues.


Had some good response to yesterday's post about showing my proposed trades in advance. These longer term trades will be initiated trading the future or ETF or stock and where appropriate, I'll arb the position into an option position. Some of you will be interested in the options, others only in the underlying trade.


I'm also looking at the technology to Tweet some futures day trades as they are happening. This might give a bit more perspective to what I have been showing in the blog and give more of a feel for the trades. If people have a chart up then they can watch a trade unfold in real time and see the entries and exits. I'm not sure yet which software will be the least overhead for me and how quickly what I Tweet will hit the Tweetosphere. We'll be testing soon.


Today was a firm start to the day in many markets. I traded the DAX today.


I got caught with the first short and doubled down to get out of it for a scratch. The next three trades paid the bills. The fourth was a small win and I was finished.