PDA's, iPods, and all the tech gadgets...

Nursing Students Pre-Nursing

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So I'm noticing this big trend with students and with nurses. The talk is about all the high tech gadgets with podcasts and information storage etc. A lot of my classmates record lectures and upload them to their ipods so they can continue to listen to them. I also hear a lot about nurses and PDA's. I have the T-Mobile MDA phone. It's like a mini laptop/pda and can record & store video's, web browse, has MS office and powerpoint, can voice/lecture record. It even has a little keyboard. I have had this phone for almost a year and I think it's great--but the fact of the matter remains that it is my cell phone! And I was wondering if anyone has any advice whether or not it might be worth to invest in a PDA or ipod and separate digital recorder if my phone already does all that stuff. I mean is having an ipod eventually going to be pertinent to my education? And although my phone has the video capability it plays them in Windows Media and doesn't support quicktime.

Any advice?

i use my iPod for school - and some of my teachers have already uploaded podcasts for us to download and listen to. =)

it's a very nice thing to have - but like hikernurse said, it isn't necessary.

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Sounds like you've had experiences using the wrong tool for the wrong job.

Or vice versa.

Peace.

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Technology, per se, is wildly inefficient. The best use of it to process redundant data. Hardly nursing school material...

Wrong!

Being in the healthcare field I would think that everyone would be aware that Technology can help save lives.

I love technology! Give me more, more, more!:behindpc:

Proud mom to:

3 desk tops, 1 lap top, various cell phones, a pager (for work), mp3 player & soon a brand new PDA.

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PDA'S programs can substitute for books during nursing. For example; drug guides, lab/diagnostic tests, medical dictionaries etc. Check out this; most of the PDA programs are able to be downloaded for free.

I start my nursing this fall and a PDA is on the top of my list before my books.

https://allnurses.com/forums/f234/free-pda-medical-software-133244.html

Oh, thanks for the idea about loading the lectures to the ipod; I never even thought about that....:idea:

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Technology, per se, is wildly inefficient. The best use of it to process redundant data. Hardly nursing school material...

I was MIFFED when I found out Duke REQUIRED us to buy a PDA. I couldn't see that I'd have any use for it. I bought an HP Pocket PC just to avoid compatibility issues that I'd heard Palm users have. Literally, I was terrified of the thing for weeks. I'd only had an iPod for two months at the time and I barely knew how to use THAT!

I couldn't live without it on the floor now.

I wouldn't say having the ability to carry around an entire 2007 Mosby's drug guide, a 2007 Mosby's lab values guide, an Archimedes medical calculator (that has more crap on it than a PHYSICIAN would use), a 2007 Lippincott Nursing Dx guide, an exhaustive ECG interpreter, and an assortment of self-made notes and Word document study aids around IN ONE POCKET "hardly nursing school material". We've had RNs come and ask us stuff that they know we can access in a second or two. How handy is it to have an accurate resource in my pocket, be able to correctly answer so many of my own questions, and learn the information because I could look it up myself?

No, they're not necessary. But I wouldn't call their information "redundant" or not "nursing school material". They're extremely helpful!

And I wouldn't say that technology's best use is to process redundant data. My mother, who went to nursing school in 1953, has said many times that she can't imagine how much easier (in some ways) it is to monitor patients now. LOOK AT WHAT WE CAN LEARN ABOUT A PATIENT WITHOUT CUTTING THEM OPEN THANKS TO TECHNOLOGY.

Hardly redundant, is it? Ask my mother what it was like before CTs and MRIs, and exploratory surgery was the only "modern technology" they had available.

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II wouldn't say having the ability to carry around an entire 2007 Mosby's drug guide, a 2007 Mosby's lab values guide, an Archimedes medical calculator (that has more crap on it than a PHYSICIAN would use), a 2007 Lippincott Nursing Dx guide, an exhaustive ECG interpreter, and an assortment of self-made notes and Word document study aids around IN ONE POCKET "hardly nursing school material". We've had RNs come and ask us stuff that they know we can access in a second or two.

hmm.... if what you say is true, then the next question begging to be asked is: how come the RNs don't have their own...

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hmm.... if what you say is true, then the next question begging to be asked is: how come the RNs don't have their own...

Could be lots of reasons....a simple one might be they don't have a computer at home. A PDA is useless without a computer, since you have no other way to load information on the thing.

Peace,

Cathie

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Could be lots of reasons....a simple one might be they don't have a computer at home. A PDA is useless without a computer, since you have no other way to load information on the thing.

Peace,

Cathie

Not likely, since sixty-two million U.S. households, or 55 percent of American homes, had a Web-connected computer way back in 2003. Demographically, nurses would tend to fall into the owner category as opposed to the non owner since both computer ownership and Web use are lower in households comprised of seniors, among blacks and Hispanics and among households comprised of people with less than a high school education.

peace yourself :coollook:

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Specializes in Neuro ICU, Gyn/Uro Surgical.

or maybe it's just cheaper to use the PDA of a student on the floor instead of buying one

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