Whether you’re looking to blow off steam after a long shift, need insights and advice from other nurses, or even if you’re a nursing student looking for the perfect specialty, nursing podcasts are a great resource. A podcast can keep you company on the drive to and from work, reduce the monotony of doing chores, or make you laugh while on a run. We compiled this list of nursing podcasts you should check out, using ratings on podcast platforms, top 10 lists, and web forum/social media reviews.
Below, you'll find the best nursing podcasts for:
- Different Specialties
- New Nurses
- Nursing Students
- Nursing Career Advice
- Medical Information
- Nursing Humor
The 3 Best Nursing Podcasts by Specialty
1. The Oncology Nursing Podcast
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Associated with the national oncology membership group ONS and the American Cancer Society, this podcast features nurses discussing their real experiences treating patients with cancer. The nurses and other practitioners who subscribe to this podcast say it’s helpful and a great resource for those treating patients with cancer. Listeners particularly seem to like the emphasis on new research and modern therapies.
2. GeriPal: A Geriatrics and Palliative Care Podcast
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | SoundCloud | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Hosted by Alex Smith and Eric Widera, this podcast invites the best minds in geriatric science, hospice, and palliative care to talk about everything from recently published research to the horror stories that make nurses cringe. GeriPal may get a little technical, but it promises that listeners will laugh, learn, and maybe sing along.
3. ENA Podcast
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Podbean
- Why You'll Love It: The ENA podcast is the official podcast for the Emergency Nurses Association. The hosts discuss up-to-date news and information for emergency room nurses on topics such as workplace violence prevention. The episodes are only 15-30 minutes and are updated monthly.
The Best Podcast for New Nurses
4. FreshRN
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | FreshRN | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Full disclosure: This podcast hasn't been updated since March 2018. However, the reason why we're including it on this list is because in its hayday, co-hosts Kati Kleber, BSN, RN, CCRN, Elizabeth Mills, BSN, RN, CCRN, and Melissa Stafford, BSN, RN, CCRN, SCRN, churned out three seasons worth of excellent and highly relevant content that caters specifically to the first-year nurse. From time management to handling patient death, the hosts offer tips and personal experiences to help with the kinds of challenges new nurses face. These episodes can get a little lengthy (many are more than an hour long), but most reviewers gave the podcast a five-star rating because it’s so informative and topical.
The 3 Best Nursing Student Podcasts
5. Straight A Nursing
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
- Why You'll Love It: Hosted by Nurse Mo, this podcast provides useful tips for nursing students like the ABCs of DIC and how to prioritize nursing care. Nurse Mo also discusses complicated cases seen in the Intensive Care Unit. Bonus! Straight A Nursing’s website also has a blog, boot camp programs to help new nurses with specific topics, and a shop filled with study guides and organizational tools.
6. Real Talk School of Nursing
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | PlayerFM | Podbean | Spotify
- Why You’ll Love It: This podcast covers the kinds of topics that nurses don’t necessarily learn in nursing school. All the frustrations and feels are discussed here in a frank and casual manner. Managed by Michael Smith, the Real Talk podcast publishes episodes often, and he isn’t afraid to discuss the awkward and unpleasant subjects pertaining to nursing school. The Real Talk School of Nursing encourages feedback and listener questions by email with an emphasis on the difficulty of dealing with the distractions during nursing school, not just nursing school itself.
7. Instant Anatomy
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Podbean
- Why You’ll Love It: Anatomy and Physiology is one of the hardest classes in nursing school. Read along with your textbook and listen to Dr. Robert Whitaker as he reviews human anatomy. In bite-sized episodes (only about 10 minutes long or even shorter), Dr. Whitaker breaks down the uses and functions of joints, muscles, and other body parts. This podcast is great for medical and nursing students, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and doctors.
The 3 Best Nursing Podcasts for Career Advice
8. The Nurse Keith Show
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | PlayerFM | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Hosted by career coach Keith Carlson, BSN, RN, NC-BC, this podcast features interviews with top nurses about the day-to-day issues nurses face. Topics include work/life balance, conquering self-doubt, nurse employee retention, and many more. Carlson is inspirational and down-to-earth, and as a coach, he cares about the quality of life for practicing nurses. He’s also been in the radio business for some time as the founder of RNFM Radio.
9. The NursePreneur Podcast with Catie Harris
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Soundcloud
- Why You'll Love It: Hosted by Catie Harris, PhD, MBA, RN, this weekly podcast features interviews with nurses and nurse practitioner entrepreneurs. The guests give career advice, strategies, and tips to nurses on how to start a business. Business ideas include medispas, freelance writing, and/or IV hydration.
10. Ask Nurse Alice Podcast
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts |Spotify
- Why You'll Love It: On her podcast, Alice Benjamin, MSN, APRN, ACNS-BC, FNP-C, discusses everything from nursing students, nursing careers, family life, and conversations that are meant to stay in the break room, but are brought up on air. Alice has been featured on Dr. Oz, The Doctors, Dr. Drew, CNN, HLN, TVOne, BBC, NBC, and many more networks. The podcast is presented by nurse.org.
The 3 Best Medical Podcasts for Nurses
11. Keeping Current CME Medscape Education
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | ListenNotes
- Why You'll Love It: Listen to experts discuss current therapies and different approaches to disease processes. This podcast is great for nursing students, new nurses, and nurse practitioners having to stay current with up-to-date medical news and practices. Medscape is an organization dedicated to providing the latest evidence-based news and expert advice.
12. Know Diabetes by Heart Professional Education Podcast Series American Heart Association
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Podbean
- Why You'll Love It: Find caring for diabetic patients confusing? Well the American Heart Association launched this series, Know Diabetes by Heart Professional Education, because it knows the guidelines for caring for a diabetic patient can be overwhelming and can change often. Listen to these 30-minute episodes in which medical experts discuss up-to-date standards of care, current guidelines, and how to make decisions as a team. This series is great for nursing students, new nurses, and nurse practitioners.
13. Medical Spanish
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | DocMolly.com | PlayerFM | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Medical Spanish helps nurses (and other healthcare professionals) gain a better medical vocabulary in Spanish and learn correct pronunciation so they can better understand native Spanish speakers. Host Dr. Molly Martin teaches medical Spanish lessons based on common clinical encounters and interviews with real patients and doctors. The lessons are interactive and review key vocabulary and grammar fundamentals, plus they also give you the chance to put what you learned into practice by having you interpret and translate phrases. Most of these episodes are free, but some require a paid subscription.
The 5 Funniest Nursing Podcasts
14. Nursing Uncensored
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | NursingUncensored.com | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Nursing Uncensored provides education and advocacy with storytelling, sharing common experiences, and humorous reflection. Host Adrianne Behning has crafted Nursing Uncensored into a series of conversations that open up frank discussions about everything on the minds of nurses. She encourages both funny and more serious conversations about the joys and the difficulties nurses face in America. Warning: Behning has strong, sometimes inappropriate opinions that do not represent those of her employers and professional associations. NSFW.
15. Bad Decisions with Katie Duke
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Baddecisionspodcast | Spotify | __Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: Host Katie Duke, a nurse practitioner, healthcare influencer, and motivational speaker, begins her podcast with a disclaimer: there will be a lot of cursing. In her podcast, the outspoken New Yorker talks about personal stories and isn’t afraid to dish out some bad decisions she’s made. She believes in owning your failures in order to succeed in the world.
16. Nurse Blake
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Spotify
- Why You'll Love It: RNs Sam and Tina host this light-hearted, fun podcast in which they invite guests on who tell two medical-related stories, one heavy and serious and another that’s fun and uplifting. They also discuss current events and hot topics related to nursing and medicine as a whole. With more than 58,000 downloads, this podcast pulls visitors in with humor and accessibility balanced with current events and serious issues.
17. Good Nurse Bad Nurse
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | GoodNurseBadNurse.com | PlayerFM | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: RNs Sam and Tina host this light-hearted, fun podcast in which they invite guests on who tell two medical-related stories, one heavy and serious and another that’s fun and uplifting. They also discuss current events and hot topics related to nursing and medicine as a whole. With more than 58,000 downloads, this podcast pulls visitors in with humor and accessibility balanced with current events and serious issues.
18. Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine
- Listen On: Apple Podcasts | Podbean | Stitcher
- Why You'll Love It: New episodes go live every Friday, in which the hosts Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy peruse “the odd, the weird, the wrong, the dumb, and the just gross” ways healthcare pros have tried to help people over the course of history. This one is definitely for nurses who need a belly laugh and can appreciate a fun attempt at combining wackiness with modern medicine.
Originally published on July 10, 2019.
Updated on June 18, 2021.
Image courtesy of iStock.com/coffeekai