PDA?????? Can someone tell me ............

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Specializes in RN.

.........if these are useful for nursing school....how much did you pay for one,......what kind of software does yours have......and what have you purchased that helps with nursing school>>>>>>>>.

I have been out of school for almos 8 years.....so.....I have kept up a little with technology, but i don't know anything about PDA's......Please help....any info will be helpful about these gadgets......:banghead:

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I bought a Palm Tungsten T2 in January and installed Nursing Central on it. I *love* having my PDA. I still have to look up most of the drugs I give before I can be confident answering any questions about them, and that alone makes it worth it IMO. It's so nice to be able to type in a drug or diagnosis or lab to double-check what it is I'm seeing about my patient. There's a learning curve, of course, but it's not bad. I love mine. A lot of my classmates have them now as well and are similarly fond of them.

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Specializes in Maternity, quality.

We were "given" Palm T/Xes for our program (I think the fees for those were around $400). They came pre-loaded with Davis Drug Guide, Diseases and Disorders, and Taber's Medical Dictionary. I didn't know a thing about PDAs before I got mine, either, but it's definitely been nice to have in clinical and for studying.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.

I have an HP loaded with several titles from Skyscape...Davis Drug, Tabers, RN diseases, RN assess, RN Labs, ICD-9 and then a few other little things. I can easily add more programs that I would personally like...and I plan to do so.

The other students were required to purchase a Dell PDA through the school. I got out of it by refusing to by the Dell because I already had an HP. Our school did not give us notice of the PDAs until we got our bills for the coming semester on a Friday afternoon with a $600 charge for the PDA. Nice.

Anyway they have Dells and they are awful. The students with Dells have nothing but problems. They freeze, they have a hard time updating, batteries don't keep charge, can't leave memory card in it...

If you get a PDA get a large memory card and store all your programs on the card...not on the PDA. The card can then stay in the PDA.

You can buy stuff from several sites. I have bought from http://www.skyscape.com

There are also freebies out there...Skyscape has some actually.

There are some free stuff here and the rest us subscription but the free stuff is great

http://www.epocrates.com

Vaccination schedule...the Windows version may not be working yet

http://www.immunizationed.org/anypage.aspx?pagename=shotshome

You just have to search and you will find more.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.

One more thing...before you buy programs look around and see what you want. There are packages out there and some are not a deal. I just looked at one and my stuff was only slightly more expensive when bought separately but that's before the discount that I was got. Also see if the place you are buying from includes updates.

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I have a lifedrive with aprocrates and love it. I would like something a little more nurse focused as aprocrates seems more like doctor focus, but I love the pda. Keep my calander, grandkids photos, my favorite stevie ray vaughn songs and all the docs cell phone numbers that they accidently give you at one time or another. Get one they are great. Mine was about $300. and the annual fee for the aprocrates is another $100., but it has an mp3 - so i never use my ipod any more. try it... you'll like it

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Specializes in RN-BC, CCRN, TCRN, CEN.

Shortly after purchasing one (Palm TX), a friend who is a nurse said she recommends not having one. That way you know the info in your head for college, but can still use the palm in clinicals. I dunno, what do you guys think?

Jeremy

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Specializes in Neuro.

I was required to have a PDA for my program, with ePocrates software. EPocrates is pretty helpful because it includes a drug book, lab values, diagnosis information, as well as tools and calculators. I'm in an accelerated program, already took pharmacology, but the program figures that as fast as we go through the program, extra help looking up drugs isn't a bad idea. I have used it frequently in clinical and have actually been able to help my nurses I work with to find info they have forgotten or learn about new drugs they had not seen before. I also use it sometimes in class when we do case studies and need to interpret lab values (normal values are one thing I have trouble remembering).

I agree that knowing stuff in your head is good, and a PDA should not be a crutch. But it's much easier than carrying around a drug book and you will still learn the material, I think, even with a PDA.

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i have a dell pda and as much as i'm not a fan of dell, i've had the pda since starting nursing school and i like it. i used to use it a lot when i started and i kinda stopped but now i use it mostly for uploading my lecture powerpoints or formatting notes into adobe so i can sync and read my notes on the go. i have drug guide, rn labs, diseases, tabers, steadman's and something else. i use tabers a lot, and the drug guide, i prefer tabers to steadmnan's. once in a while when i need a lab value or need to look up a disease, i look use the others. i also have archimedes, c-tools and some other stuff.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, High-Risk L&D, Antepartum, L.
Shortly after purchasing one (Palm TX), a friend who is a nurse said she recommends not having one. That way you know the info in your head for college, but can still use the palm in clinicals. I dunno, what do you guys think?

Jeremy

Well...at the nurse's stations there are a lot of books there for the nurses to reference. They do reference them. I have those books on a little handheld PDA that goes with me. Which seems easier?

Also it's common for students to be required to have things like drug books. How are you going to learn about drugs without the book? The PDA doesn't make your brain not have to work. The PDA has the books in it (in a nicer format for some). So instead of carting around large books to reference as a student (as is the norm)...you carry a PDA with everything on it.

I think your friend is forgetting that in nursing school she had reference books.

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Specializes in RN-BC, CCRN, TCRN, CEN.
Well...at the nurse's stations there are a lot of books there for the nurses to reference. They do reference them. I have those books on a little handheld PDA that goes with me. Which seems easier?

Also it's common for students to be required to have things like drug books. How are you going to learn about drugs without the book? The PDA doesn't make your brain not have to work. The PDA has the books in it (in a nicer format for some). So instead of carting around large books to reference as a student (as is the norm)...you carry a PDA with everything on it.

I think your friend is forgetting that in nursing school she had reference books.

Good point. I'm glad I got mine, and will continue to use it through school, and my career.

Jeremy

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, ER, Peds ER-CPEN.

I don't know about the paid version of epocrates, but the free download version of it does not have nursing considerations for the drugs as Davis' for Nurses does, you may want to have a hard copy back up for research purposes because if your instructor stops you mid pass and asks what the N/C for the drug are you don't want to pull out the palm and the info not be there when you need it most

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