Hey Larry,
That is a legitimate concern. If you write faster than you type, paper is probably best. And if you have a strong concern that a laptop might be stolen, I wouldn't bring it either. In fact, I was considering bringing my tablet to clinicals this semester, but changed my mind. I got it after I took OB. In those clinicals, I could have looked after it better, but I'm in Chronic right now, and there is no way that I could keep tabs on my tablet. So, needless to say, bringing it to clinicals was out of the question. But if you can, I would get a palm just for the drug guides and other medical software you can put on it. This would help you in clinicals immensely. And when you get comfortable with your typing skills, you could get a mini keyboard attachment for your palm and type your notes in class with a program like Documents to Go, or something. Depending on the model of palm and keyboard, you would be paying about $200 (my palm- handspring treo 90 -was $120, and a keyboard shouldn't be anymore than $50) - $400 (if you want the latest and the greatest). At any rate, you could stick both in your pocket, and someone would have to have really good pick pocketing skills to take it from you. :)
If anyone has any questions regarding palm or ppc software, or general tech, ask me and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.
