iphone or palm?

There are benefits to both, but keep in mind Palm's popularity has waned with the advent of Blackberry, improved versions of Windows Mobile and of course the introduction of the iPhone. I was a long-time Palm user, had accumulated a large number of Palm applications (drug guides, medical dictionaries and texts, etc.) and was reluctant to jump to another platform mainly because of my comfort with Palm and the cost of replacing many of those applications for the new platform.

But after I graduated and took jobs that paid for the acquisition of "educational" items like applications for mobile devices, I made the switch to the iPhone and I haven't looked back. I have nearly all the same applications I used to have on my Palm devices, and I enjoy using the iPhone much more than I did any of my previous devices. It also is more stable than any device I've had before, and I say that even after I had to return my first iPhone because it was defective (the return process was easy).

So you can probably find good reasons to use any of the major platforms, but if you're asking whether the iPhone is worth trying, the answer is definitely yes. It would have given me everything I needed when I was in school if it had been around then, and it probably would have made my life easier, since it's integration with e-mail, contacts and calendar functions in both Outlook and Google is nearly seamless (I was almost strictly an Outlook person for organizing things while in school, but have since turned almost exclusively to Google and the iPhone).

If you have any specific questions about the iPhone, let me know.

Cheers,

Hugh

Can I ask what programs you use on your Iphone? I want to know which ones will be the most helpful during school, etc.

I use a bunch of Skyscape applications on my iPhone, including:

A2zDrugs

AHFS-DI

AnesthesiaDrugs

ClinAne2

DrDrugs

DrugGuide

EmergAir

Handbook of Pharmacology and Physiology in Anesthesia Practice

Labs360

MGHAnes7

NurAnes

Stedman28

StedmanSE3

I also have downloaded a couple of anesthesia texts from Amazon to the iPhone Kindle application.

iPhone applications I have include:

Epocrates Essentials

Emergency Medical Spanish

Mediquations

Sedation

ACLS

PALS

PubSearch Plus

MedAbbr

RSI

I'm the first to admit that I have way more stuff than I need to use on a regular basis, but I can say that I often use Epocrates (quick lookup on drugs), AHFS (great for more in-depth understanding of drugs), Anesthesia Drugs, MGH Anesthesia. The range of anesthesia texts available for iPhone kindle seems to be expanding, so it's worth checking there to see if anything meets your needs as well. I do a lot of OB anesthesia, and I've got a couple of good books from Kindle on that topic, for example.

Cheers,

Hugh

How necessary do you think it is to have something like this at all? Or will I be okay during school just having a regular old cell phone?

It's completely a personal issue. I relied heavily on mine during school. Examples of where it came in handy: While reading my assigned texts, I often used my PDA to elaborate on passing references to drugs or issues that I wasn't familiar with. In class, if lecture touched on something I didn't know, I could quickly keep up with the lecture by filling in the blanks with a lookup on the PDA. Organizing study time and my complex schedule with many classes and assignments, the PDA was always there to help me. In clinical, if I was reviewing a patient's chart and ran across unfamiliar drugs, my PDA was there. If I ran across an unusual comorbidity and needed to look up anesthesia implications, the PDA was there.

If I was engaged in a task that required recall of a specific detail (e.g. type of equipment to use, or dosing), the PDA was there. When it was time to log my clinical cases for review by my school and future employer, I used the PDA. When I needed to look up something on the web and no computer was around, you guessed it, the PDA was there. So for me it was invaluable. I had classmates, however, who either had photographic memories or were technologically challenged, and they managed to do just as well as me in class and in clinical. I don't understand how, but that's me. Probably if you've been practicing as a nurse for awhile, and you've already mastered a difficult academic program at some point in your education without a PDA at your side, you have the internal resources necessary to do well without the crutch of technology.

I may have done well without the PDA too, but I'm really glad I had it. Especially when I was able to find the answer to a question that CRNAs and MDs around me couldn't answer off the top of their heads (a rare occurrence, but it did happen!).

Hugh

i have a palm and it works fine

Thank You so much for the advice. I am contemplating getting the ITouch, IPhone, or a Palm. I start school in the Fall.

I've been using Palm since 1999, so naturally, I went with a Palm Treo the last time I got a phone. I'm a bit disappointed with it. The ease of use is simple enough, but it often lags in launching applications, and the proprietary Palm OS has to be "hacked" to even get decent ring tones. I use epocrates and I like the application. However, I'm contemplating getting something (perhaps a Blackberry or iPhone) the next time I renew my contract. There just aren't as many apps out there for Palms these days, and the interest seems to be dwindling.

I actually just bought a Blackberry 8900 for school. I have found that most of the anesthesia related programs for PDA are also available for BB. I also found that instead of having to download to your phone memory there is product you can buy that allows you to download these programs onto a memory card just like you would use for photos, music, etc so you don't have to use all your phone memory. It's great. Someone at T-mobile told me about it but it's not their product. So at this point the programs I can put on my phone are endless.

Thank You! I was unsure if I should get an iPhone or not. I wanted to make sure I was getting it for the right reasons (I don't want to pay $30/month for internet if I don't have to). I also wanted to make sure that I wasn't using graduate school as an excuse to get an iPhone. Now, I realize, it's true; I will need it. Thanks!