Is it worth the money?

[Nurse2bSandy]

Hi,

I bought a PDA on a great deal. I'm not really the techie type and am wondering if I will use it much. I talked with a gal in the program a year ahead of me and she said that not many in our program use them. I was set to put it away but then I have read that many do use them in the hospital setting, and an RN in a seminar that I took did say that it was invaluable on the floor. So now I have decided to make myself get used to using it.

Okay, so here's the real question... mine has Word capabilities and I was thinking that rewriting my notes onto it and then downloading them at home might be good. Has anyone used their PDA as a portable computer at school? I'm not the thumbing type, so I was thinking about buying one of those small keypads that can be used by reg sized fingers. Any ideas about whether this will be worth it? I don't want to waste money on something that I won't use, but I do want to make the most of the tools that are available to me.

Thanks for any ideas and suggestions.

[manna, BSN, RN]

I don't have a PDA and I'm not in nursing school (yet), so I'm not any help... I'm dying for a laptop personally, though! LOL

[PJMommy]

I don't if I could have kept up with the typing in class. Mainly because so much of my note-taking is drawing pictures, lines, arrows, etc. Every single class I've taken is based off of Powerpoints so I just wrote right on the printout.

However, I have a couple classmates who have PDA's and it is their walking reference. Helps them tremendously in clinical. They have drug databases on them, medical dictionaries on them...you name it. While the rest of us fumble around, looking for a book - they just pull one out and say 'oh, yes - the side effects of furosemide are ____'.

[Nurse2bSandy]

Thanks for the replies... anyone else with PDA experience?

[ST_NURSE_MLD]

I have a PDA and love mine. However, in MO I'd become efficient in school before I went out and bought one.

With the way technology changes.... you might would benefit for the newer Laptops (they are the size of daily planners). I tend to pull my hair out when trying to read off that small PDA screen. I'm looking forward to the larger screen of the newer laptops.

[hobbes]

Well, my phone is a PDA (or my PDA is a phone) and I'd be lost without it. I use it as my alarm clock, store all my contacts, passwords and accounts. I have a flash card program on it that I used when taking A&P and micro. I've had dictionaries on there. During chemistry, I download a periodic table program in there so I could easily look up elements. I highly recommend it.

[Tinker]

My nursing school required us to enter all of our daily patient care data into the PDA. I hated it! It caused me to downgrade the PDA from a glorified addressbook to another expensive piece of electronics in the bottom of a throwaway box :) I plan on selling it on ebay pronto!