[bryanboling5]

Hello all,
I've got a scholarship for school that gives me a certain amount of money each year. Whatever I don't spend, I lose. I can use this money for anything that I can justify as a school expense. I just found out that I've got about $660 left for this year and other than a few little things, I'm out of expenses.

This is not enough for me to buy a new laptop, so I was thinking about a nice palm. I've got a Sony Clie that is a few years old, but honestly, I don't use it all that much. I've got ePocrates on it and that's about all I use. Truthfully, I use the drug books that are laying around the nurses station half the time because I don't feel like carrying the palm around for as little as I use it.

But, I was thinking, if I could get something nice with Wi-Fi where I could use hotspots rather than pay a monthly fee (I'm looking to spend $0 of my own money here!) that might be nice. Our school is all free Wi-Fi and there are tons of other places around. It would be nice to get online to look things up (not to mention email etc.). That would have applications beyond clinicals/work. I could use it for school in general and for personal use as well.

I'm open to non-PDA related things as well. I don't need a new stethascope and my future employer requires certain scrubs based on the unit you're in (which I won't know until next year) so stethascope and scrubs are out for now.

Ideas?
Bryan

[richardjboro1]

If it were me, I'd def go for a Palm T/X and load that puppy up. You could get what skyscape calls "constellation" I think. It has RN Notes, a great drug guide, and lots of other cool things. Also, it has wifi like you want, and then you could get a cool case, and be set. If not you could also look into a Treo or some smartphone and do the same or similar things, I"m just more familiar with the PDA only versions, since our school says "no smartphones" and many hospitals are the same.


Richard

[sandtiger]

How about a subnotebook?





or a tablet pc?

[hannah8]

Look into the latest iPAQ 111 or better yet a 211 ($100 difference between the two). Aside from getting the nursing softwares I think the following are essential buys:

Opera Mobile- use the Trial version until they have the 9.5 version on offer which was just announced

Documents to Go- for editing the MS Office programs including Powerpoint. The Powerpoint editing is what sold me because I'm really annoyed by how much paper I have to use and carry for so little notes.

Calligrapher by Phatware- this script recognizing software is just incredible

Magic Touch- freeware for closing programs and managing your taskbar (Windows Mobile 6 does not really close programs when you hit X)

TCPMP- freeware that runs almost all video formats

Once you do get your PDA make sure to take advantage of Trial softwares to get a feel for what is worth paying for etc. As much as I like Davis's Drug Guide I really don't want to pay for a PDA version at this point so I'm glad Epocrates Rx suffices for my needs.

Some programs definitely offer more than others and you won't know until you spend a few minutes with them. I found the "best" software for nursing diagnosis were not the ones with the phrase in their title but the one called Diseases and Disorders.