Is a tablet a good investment for nursing school

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Our school encourages the use of electronics and skyscape but it is optional. Before I drop $600, I would like to know if the tablets are handy in a school setting? Thanks.

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Think twice before dropping $600 if you decide to buy a tablet. About three weeks after I bought my Galaxy Tab from T-Mobile, they dropped $100 from the price, then a short time later, they are now selling it for about half what I originally paid.

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Specializes in Med Surg - Renal.
Our school encourages the use of electronics and skyscape but it is optional. Before I drop $600, I would like to know if the tablets are handy in a school setting? Thanks.

Tablets look cool but I never saw anyone really use them for anything you wouldn't do with a small laptop or netbook. I used a Toshiba NB305 Netbook during nursing school the last two years and it did everything I needed - with a long battery life to boot. I a paid about $350 for it and it's still kicking.

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I've never seen anyone use a tablet at my school. Most people have macbooks or netbooks. Personally, I think you might get more use out of a macbook/netbook. I use an asus netbook and love it to pieces. It has all the programs I need, the charge lasts about 7-8 hours when I'm continuously working on it and it's small and light (which is a real bonus given the enormous size of my textbooks :eek: ), plus it didn't cost a small fortune to buy it. Having said this, every school is different and it may be of more help asking people who go to your school what they use.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.

Tablets are a young market. They are still trying to feel out what their market is. I would say depending on your lifestyle, do you need it? Me, Im tired of laptops. My laptops always break, I am just really hard on them and all the moving components dont go well with that. So i upgraded to a desktop but I miss being able to sit on my couch and do random things online. that is where the tablet is awesome for me. I would never use it at school. a small ipod touch was what I used and that was only for a semester as it was more of a weight in my pocket than useful.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Rehab.

The biggest issue would be how well you could use it for mundane tasks like note taking and such. You can't keep up on a touch screen, thats for sure, so you really need a keyboard. Now the tablet is just another laptop and the keyboard is either wireless or wired but you need something to prop up the screen. The other issue is the OS, if its running android, what apps can you get that will let you read and edit MS Office files which are the common demominator for all your school related documentation. I'm not even sure how an IPAD would handle that, so do that research before you buy. Any time you buy bleeding edge technology, be prepared for it to take a nosedive in value real quick, that is just the nature of the beast.

I've been using a Dell netbook for going on two years. Not the most fun typing on the small keyboard but I manage. With the 6 cell battery life, I am still managing to run about 4-5 hours on one charge and these machines are going in the 2-300 dollar range still. I started out as the only person in class using a PC for notes, now there are about 4-5 with one other person using a netbook.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

Let me move this the Mobile Computing and Nursing Forum.

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i would prefer something handy but u should also want to consider memory. as a student u will be downloading a lot of stuffs. u may want an ipad.

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For school, I utilized an ipod because it was also allowed in clinical and could fit in my pocket. While Ipads and tablets are the newest and coolest thing, productivity requires a behavioral change adjustment. The best combo for school is a laptop and ipod for mobility. Spend some time looking into online clouds such as Google Docs to store powerpoints and class assignments.

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i will go for laptop and ipod. ipads / tablets are priced the same with laptop

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The best thing they offer now, are actually the Tablet PC's which are both a netbook and a tablet just by twisting the screen around, Dell has one for around 600$ (that kmart even sells) they go all the way up to around 2500$ and they are well worth it, you can switch from regular laptop to tablet in just a few seconds...

its definitely an option at least...and if your looking for something small and portable, i recommend a smart phone....i'm anti Apply, so I will never recommend an iPhone, and i prefer droid's over anything...specifically...anything made by samsung...

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Specializes in Emergency, MCCU, Surgical/ENT, Hep Trans.

I'd look at an iPad. You cannot beat the battery life, which is important for ALL DAY lectures.

The iOS and I assume Android offer interesting apps which allow note taking while recording audio in real time. Some will argue that there are laptops/netbooks which can do the same, but my counterpoint would be, not without plugging in, which is sometimes difficult in the middle of a large lecture hall. I remember those who used laptops would generally already have all the plugs taken at the beginning of lecture. Some schools have revamped their lecture halls to include individual plugs, but not in all rooms.

My other point, weight. Again, the tablet cannot be beat, whether iOS or Android, lugging around a 5+ pound laptop begins to take a toll, depending upon where you have to park. Add that on top of the huge books you already have to carry and well...you get the point.

Good point about the cloud.

I'd shy away from the netbooks. Windows 7 starter is just not comparable to either iOS or Android.

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