Nursing is the science and art of providing health care to men and women of all ages. The goal of nursing is to:

• Promote Health

• Prevent Illness

• Provide care to the sick, injured, disabled and dying

• Foster a safe environment

• Alleviate suffering

The need for nursing education and training is greater now than ever before. While hands-on training by dedicated, knowledgeable instructors is undoubtedly the best way to learn and maintain nursing skills, such training is not always easily accessible, convenient, or even available. Distance learning, through the internet, is always available and can be very useful for both primary and refresher training.

Recognizing the importance of Distance Learning, the U.S. Army Medical Department Center and School at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, developed a number of continuing education courses. Others were developed by the U.S. Navy Education and Training Professional Development and Technology Center.

While originally designed for their military health care personnel, these courses have great value for non-military health care students and practitioners. Nursing is, after all, nursing.

These courses have been collected by the Brookside Associates Medical Education Division and placed on the Nursing 411  website to make them available to everyone, so that all may benefit from the considerable time, energy and professional expertise that went into their preparation. The Brookside Associates has added text, graphics and video content to some of them to better explain some of the principles and practices described in the texts, or to expand on the material in the original text.

Anyone may take any of these courses. They are not classified or restricted in any way. Upon completion of a course, participants are encouraged to take the final exam as a knowledge self-test. No registration is required, and no certificate of completion is provided. These free courses are for learning, not for credit.