PDA becoming a necessity pdq :)

I am not a student, but I find my PDA to be a tool I use each and every day. I have an iPod and it does a great job for audio (listening and recording), but my PDA helps with reading material, study guides, drug guides, flash cards, and non-nursing things (calendar, work-out tracker, address book...) Get one now and learn to use it. You will find many applications (free and pay) in the PDA forum. Check that out--better than the TX forum for learning about PDAs.

i can see whaere it would be useful in school (if i could ever make myself actually USE one), but in a health care setting, wouldn't it be a violation of the pt.'s privacy? i mean you being able to take personal info about the pt. out of the hospital in your pocket...

You don't use it to store personal info about the patient - you use it to store your drug ref book, your lab manual and other references on.

From a standpoint of home health however or say NP or MD - you would probably carry some patient info around on it - but it's either carry it around on that and be able to password protect it, or carry it around on paper...

oh i see...

i was just visualizing someone doing charts in the palm of their hand...

...just ignore me!

I know I'll be camped out in the PDA forum if I ever get accepted to school!

I use my PDA for everything! drug guide, OB wheel, IV drip rates, etc. I can't imagine not having it! Beats having to carry around all those nursing books to clinicals. Our school is training incoming nursing students on how to use them.

Alex1

Graduating in 13days!!!

I've had my Ipaq since before I started clinicals. Some of the reactions from fellow students and teachers were quite interesting. A few actually seemed resentful, but many wanted to know where they could get one. Interestingly, I've actually had more teachers ask about it than students. One of my "old school" teachers was rather rude to me about it and made the comment "we should use the brain God gave us" .... egad! I have no doubt that I'd rather have references at my fingertips than go into a patient care situation clueless. The doctors are using them; why not nurses?? Current, concise, and readily available information has been a godsend during clinicals.

I have 3 drug guides, some medical references, Merck Manual, lab manuals, Harrison's, Stedman's, some care plan stuff, DSM-IV-TR, etc... I'll also say that I've easily learned as much from those references as I learned in class. Oh... FYI: Here's a link to probably the most useful medical guide I've found (and that I actually paid good $$$ for).

http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=17445
OR download it from the author/editor for $10 less: http://www.clinicalmedconsult.com/

May 18th is the eagerly anticipated graduation day here... woohooooo!

In a few weeks remind me to tell you a really funny story about my PDA that I can't share just yet LOL

Aww, you tease

I keep holding out to get mine because I don't want to buy one and something new and fancy will come out right after I buy it!