[WinksRN]

I want to know would I have time to look up drugs or medical terms with these handy devices? Are they worth the investment you put into them.

[traumaRUs]

YEs, definitely....I have a treo 700p and its the third or fourth PDA I've owned and its awesome!

I'm going to move your post to the PDA forum in order to get more responses.

[RN007]

Originally Posted by WinksRN

I want to know would I have time to look up drugs or medical terms with these handy devices? Are they worth the investment you put into them.

Oh, absolutely. I use a Palm and it takes two seconds to find a med or look up a condition in Tabers. I'm only a student but use it for clinicals. I hope to buy a smartphone when I start working (graduate in May) so I won't have two pieces of electronics to lug around. I love my PDA!

[olaboss]

Hello.
I would like to start by saying that I LOVE MY PDA! It is such great tool to have. I use it all the time.

I have two programs for checking meds. One is Epocrates and it is free, the other one is called Nurses Pocket Drug Guide by Unbound Medicine, and is a purchased program: http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=169C1DCBCXA 7AE8DE4BF25E2F6DE3732&language=english&platformId= 2&N=96806&Ntt=nurses%20pocket%20drug&productId=146 031&R=146031#description1


I am a foreign trained nurse and one of the most important programs for me is a dictionary. I have Bdicty medical dictionary and an abbreviation dictionary for the PDA. I found that even though there are more than 6000 abbreviations listed there are still abbreviations at my hospital that I am unable to locate in the dictionary!
http://www.beiks.com/PocketPC/category.asp?catid=14


If you are accustomed to the metric system and find it frustrating with the illogical English system , try this free program for conversions: http://www.freewareppc.com/calculator/converterce.shtml


I sometimes copy text that I find useful or informative from the Internet. It may be lab-values or related to something like diets. Word files can be read with the default MSWord program that comes with the PDA operating system. Adobe PDF files need to be read with a PDF reader for PDAs, available at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readerforppc.html


Another handy thing is MobileDB which is a database with a lot of free stuff, for example NANDA or all the ICD10. You can make your own database easily and use the search function to find what you are looking for.
http://www.mobiledb.com/
http://www.handmark.com/


Remind Me is one of the most-used programs I have and it is amazing. It takes just a second to program a reminder. It will ring or give off a sound after you totally forget about it. You can set it to go off in seconds to months later, and the reminder can be programmed in one of three ways: typed, drawn, or spoken:
http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=1&jid=169C1DCBCXA 7AE8DE4BF25E2F6DE3732&language=english&platformId= 2&N=96806&Ntt=remindme&productId=15230&R=15230


I would like to see some good tips on how to use your PDA in nursing.
One tip that I can offer is that I use an analog clock program on my PDA for night shift. It makes it easy to take the pulse and view the the clock counting seconds without turning the light on in the room. I found a free download here: http://www.freewareppc.com/authors/iceboxmantechnologies.shtml


Another tip is to assign the most-used programs (like shortcuts) to the buttons so you can access them easily.