[Nathalie]

Hey all!!!
Im starting some courses in january and I was wondering if I should get my PDA now or later. The 2 courses that I am nursing related are Nursing Assessment and Medical Calculation. I am also taking bio-medical ethics but i know i wont need it for that. What about the other 2? I already got the required books so im really not sure. Plus my fiance wants to get me a PDA for christmas since he know that I will use it comes may. I just want to know if it will be useful my 1st semester. What do you think?

[HRM672]

Hey Nathalie,
Good luck and congratulations!
I wondered myself when I started my first semester, and I ended up waiting. I have now bought a PDA, after one semester of clinicals. I think it is very helpful for clinicals, not necessary for classroom. However, if you know that eventually you want one and you can afford it now, you will probably enjoy getting used to it and using it for scheduling and studying. You'll use it the most, though, when you get to clinicals.

Hope that helps...

[Jessy_RN]

Congrats

I have heard that you don't really need it your first semester, but if you can get one by then great. Good luck

[PamRNC]

Congratulations!

Get it when you can afford to. Remember you don't necessarily have to start loading it up with nursing programs/references. It will still be very useful for other routine tasks (i.e. reading/writing papers, note taking, calendar, schedules, to do lists for other class projects, calculator, etc). If you do have it ahead of time, you'll have an opportunity to get used to working with it, so that you won't be trying to figure out how best to use it while in the middle of an important class/clinical.

[lwd338]

Waste of money Pen and paper are free we got along just fine with these why cant you?? ;-)

[guzzebear]

I actually really recommend it for your clinical. I don't know about your school, but in my school we had to look up all of the drugs our patient was on. We had to know the reason why they were taking it, side affects, and nursing implentations. I didn't get my PDA until my fourth semester, so I had to carry around my Davis drug book everyday. I know it is expensive but worth every penny.

P.S. It really helps when your clinical instructor ask you all sorts of question about your patient's medication and you don't know the answer you can calmly (well pretend to be calm) say let me QUICKLY look it up instead of fumbling through the drug book.

Congrats and Good Luck!!

Katie

[PamRNC]

Originally Posted by guzzebear

I actually really recommend it for your clinical. I don't know about your school, but in my school we had to look up all of the drugs our patient was on. We had to know the reason why they were taking it, side affects, and nursing implentations. I didn't get my PDA until my fourth semester, so I had to carry around my Davis drug book everyday. I know it is expensive but worth every penny.

P.S. It really helps when your clinical instructor ask you all sorts of question about your patient's medication and you don't know the answer you can calmly (well pretend to be calm) say let me QUICKLY look it up instead of fumbling through the drug book.

Congrats and Good Luck!!

Katie

Oh yeah, and a quick reminder Pepid, and some of the other programs have drug interaction checkers - so you'll not only be able to quickly check you meds but also point out how one effects the metabolism of another and why this might be important if say your patient was having renal/electrolyte problems.

[CyndieRN2007]

We are not allowed to have them at clinical!! Yall are lucky!!!