[jennab33]

I am about to start clinicals and I am looking for a good PDA program. I have a Palm OS that has a PEPID program, but I am looking for a program that outlines more procedures. There are just too many programs to choose from! These are the three that I looked into: RN Notes, Mosby's PDQ for Nursing, and Taylor's Clinical Nursing Skills. Are any of these good programs? I would love some thoughts/input from other students who have used them.
Thanks!

[TrendyNursingStudent]

go to www.epocrates.com tons of free progs you can try and see what you like. also most progs have trials so you can try befor aswell. have fun and let u know what you liked and thought of the diffeant progs!

[KungFuFtr]

I have nursing central
It has:

Davis drug guide
Taber's med encyclopedia
Davis Lab Values
Disease & diagnosis
Med journals

I use Davis drug guide (I can look up my med in my software before other students can even find their page number in a book) and the med encyclopedia the most.

[fragino]

During the past year I have found that the Davis Drug Guide and Tabers has been very useful on my PDA.

Davis is written for nurses and is laid out in a format that virtually answers any questions your instructor may ask you about the med. Pubs like epocrates seemed to be made more for prescribers. Lots of good info but hard to find what you need as a nurse right away.

However knowing what I know now, I would not have bought it from Unbound (Nursing Central). I would have bought it from Skyscape.

I bought the software for the PDA but I found that as the year went on that I also came to depend on using the publications on my desktop. It has cut down on the time I spend my research and writing careplans in half.

Unbound comes with an internet version of the software that you can access from any computer for a year. However when it came time to renew the desktop access the price they asked to renew the internet subscription is the same full price I paid minus 20%. So they wanted me to buy the publications all over again with a small discount. I can still use the PDA version if I do not resubscribe, but I've found how much the desktop version has helped me.

Skyscape on the other hand comes with the desktop version for free with you buy the PDA version of Tabers and Davis. You can use it as long as you want and there is no re-subscription fee. I am going to have to go ahead and suck it up and re-buy at least the Tabers and Davis from Skyscape just to get the desktop version. Clinicals and careplans are only going to get more complicated and harder the second year.