Anatomy, Physiology, and Basic Science

Here are web sites that can help you learn anatomy, physiology, and basic medicine. They include The Merck Manual as well as two and three dimensional medical atlases and histology slides.

GedBody Smart
A review of anatomy featuring two dimensional diagrams with optional labels and practice quizzes.

VOXEL-MAN Gallery
Colorful three dimensional diagrams and video of a variety of physiological systems.

Atlas of Human Anatomy in Cross Section
Specific cross sections of a preserved cadaver with labels. These actual photographs present more of a challenge than diagrams.

Blue Histology
Offers a searchable database of microscopic tissue images in an assortment of stainings and resolutions. Some of the images are from animals rather than humans. There are also multiple choice and short answer quizzes to test your knowledge. Note: this site last received a revision several years ago, and may have dead, external links.

The Merck Manuals
The gold standard in medical handbooks. Succinctly and thoroughly describes conditions and diseases. This book requires and assumes some background with basic biology. For more depth, try a medical or nursing textbook.

Nursing Web Sites

There are a variety of good starter sites for those interested in entering the nursing profession. Some sites offer information and advice as well as articles related to nursing and healthcare issues. Others are just places where nurses gather to discuss various aspects of their profession. And yes, these sites can be entertaining as well as informative.

American Nurses' Association Nursing World
Although there is a section for Student Nurses, the most useful parts of the site are articles about healthcare policy, "What is Nursing", and subjects such as professional ethics and the nursing shortage. Though you might be able to use these articles in a paper, this site is more a jumping off point for choosing a topic, or a place to simply learn more about your profession. The social network may or may not be active and requires free registration.

Health Careers -- VeryWell
This site includes articles on working in nursing and other allied health careers. Articles discuss job conditions, salaries, licensure, educational requirements, and more. The site's Guide (editor) is Andrea Santiago, a professional health care recruiter.

Medscape Nursing
Features readable articles on nursing practice, medicine, and a forum where nurses can answer questions and discuss issues. The forum is more for entertainment and self-education than serious research. Access to nearly all of the site requires free registration.

AllNurses.com
A nursing forum where those in the profession discuss both clinical and professional issues. This forum is entertaining, and may generate ideas for paper and project topics, but it is not an edited source. Use it for your own education and enrichment only.

Medical Meta Sites

These are sites that list carefully chosen links to a variety of health science pages. Usually scientists, doctors, librarians, or trained editors have selected the links and arranged them. Such sites nearly always feature search engines, and their editors carefully screen out quacks, hoaxes, and junk.

Medline Plus 
This site features not only brief articles from such authoritative government and private agencies as the National Institute of Health and the Mayo Clinic, but it also has its own medical dictionary, medical encyclopedia with illustrations, and a gateway to the PubMed database, a free version of Medline that is partially full text.

National Library of Medicine
This site features not only a link to Medline Plus, but also clinical trials, the Medline database, a medical encyclopedia, and a medical dictionary with diagrams. This site is especially useful for anatomy and physiology students.

Health on the Net Foundation
A search engine that lets you look for sites that meet either the HONCode or HONSelect's strict set of guidelines. This means the approved sites are low in advertising, have authors who state their credentials, and offer credible health science information.

Alternative and Fringe Health Topics

All too often a well meaning librarian uses an alternative or fringe health topic site, such as Mercola.com as an example of the evils of the web. While Mercola.com is hardly a trustworthy site, the lesson librarians accidentally teach by using alternative health sites as negative examples is that alternative and fringe health topics are NOT worthy of serious research. This simply is not true. Doctors and nurses frequently ask patients about alternative medicine and discuss this topic with their patients.

Unless your professor forbids it, you can research alternative and fringe health topics for papers and projects, with just a few precautions:

• Clear your topic with your professor. Not every professor accepts all alternative health topics. Make sure your topic is acceptable to your professor.


• Avoid the hucksters and quacks. You can learn about sites to avoid with
• Web Savvy or QuackWatch. Note: QuackWatch no longer has a lot of current postings, and many older ones. Read it carefully.


• Start with GALILEO. Such databases as CINAHL Plus and Medline cover alternative as well as conventional therapies, though the articles about them may or may not be positive.


• MedlinePlus has its own page on complimentary and alternative medicine.


• There is also a page on alternative therapies at Verywell.

Have a great and productive time searching, and don't be afraid to follow your passion with your paper topic.