Question for current students

jov · Sep 19, 2006

I use a PDA but I find it much easier to work with a drug book. The screens on PDA's can be quite small making it impossible to scan large blocks of text. The biggest plus for using a PDA is you can load something like Epocrates on it (you can get the bare bones Epocrates for free) and every time I sync with my desktop, it will go to Epocrates' server and download ANY drug updates. No more out of date drug books. It also will give you some interesting medical tidbits of new studies that are out in the journals and also some CE opportunities. I plan on going on to NP school after my BSN so this kind of thing is valuable to me.

I use a PDA because I run my schedule off of it, syncing it to my Outlook at home, because I don't want to load 150 phone numbers into my cell phone, because I don't want to carry a calculator and an address book and a photo album. If you are just getting a PDA in place of a drug book, I would do the drug book. If you want a PDA for other reasons, then research the other PDA options.

P.s. I bought a Palm TX off of Ebay for $200 (list $300). They have a big backlit screen.

ladyinred667 · Sep 20, 2006

I am an RN student and I have a drug guide on my PDA, as well as Taber's, and a laboratory and diagnostic manual (all required for my program). It is much easier to carry a little PDA than 3 books, and it takes no time at all to find what I am looking for. I am only first semester but I use it to look up drugs I come across in my readings and a PDA is highly recommended by my school.