Technology Advice for Nursing School

Nursing Students General Students

Published

Hi all!

I will start taking pre-reqs soon and I wanted to see what technology you feel like is most useful/necessary in nursing school. Laptop? PC or Mac? Tablet? IPad or other? Keyboard for the tablet? Other? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

My school the teacher records your lectures sometimes she has to prerecord them before class to save time and we listen to it on our own time. They use wimba. It is not compatable with apple products ive boughtevery java app i can find with no luck

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I use the old school pen and paper over here! I find that I retain the material more when I hand write it because it makes me think about it.

At first I would get so caught up in writing EVERY little thing the professors said and what was on the power points that I would start to miss other things that the professor was talking about. However, I learned to only take notes on the key points! It's a lot of discipline to hand write notes but you have to do what works for you!

Also, what helps me a lot is to read the chapters before the lectures and take my own notes. That way I can sit back and listen and jot down anything I missed in my own notes or add to them if necessary. *this is my favorite way. And luckily for me, my professors give us outlines before hand so that we can elaborate on them ourselves if we want too.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Oncology/hematology.

I have a laptop, but rarely bring it to class. I am old fashioned and print off the powerpoints and write notes on them. I would love a Macbook, but am unwilling to spend the money. I just don't use it enough. I use the laptop if I'm writing a paper, or whatever. Our library, science lab and math lab all have computers available, so I rarely need my computer at school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

depends on the use,of course. You probably will not be allowed to use any in clinical areas. The school may have restrictions as well.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgical.

I ran a netbook with a dual boot OS (Linux and Windows). I reserved the Windows for those times I needed to run

a program for school. Some nursing education programs only run on IE Explorer (totally stupid, because Chrome and

Firefox are much better browsers). I recommend some sort of laptop for typing up papers and care plans. I tried the tablet keyboards and didn't like them that much.

If I had the money, I would have bought a Macbook of some sort, but I didn't want to deal with the Mac/Window potential headache.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
I ran a netbook with a dual boot OS (Linux and Windows). I reserved the Windows for those times I needed to run

a program for school. Some nursing education programs only run on IE Explorer (totally stupid, because Chrome and

Firefox are much better browsers). I recommend some sort of laptop for typing up papers and care plans. I tried the tablet keyboards and didn't like them that much.

If I had the money, I would have bought a Macbook of some sort, but I didn't want to deal with the Mac/Window potential headache.

No headache. As evidenced by what? The headaches are from gazing at the famous Blue Screen of Death, brought to you solely by Windoze. :)

Seriously, you can open any Word document someone sends you without having to partition your hard drive, work on it, and send it back as a Word document to the person who sent it to you. Same for Excel and PowerPoint. Where's your perception of the headache in that?

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Buy a recording device to record the lectures. I bought a digital video camera, but it turns out they won't let me record video, just audio. But it helps to be able to go back and listen to the audio of the lecture as I go back over the powerpoint slides before a test.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Forensic Psych.
I have an IPad mini also and there is an app called Notability that will allow you to record lectures and take notes. I would highly recommend it! :)

Yes, I love Notability!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
MacBook Air all the way!! Don't let people talk you into "cheap" laptops. They will fail you when you need it most. Spend the money now on a Mac and if will last you well past your college career!!!!!

For anyone who is even slightly adept at technology they know that Macs are the most overpriced pieces of aluminum and silicon you can buy...

Seriously save your money and don't drink the Kool-Aid.....

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Im a PC girl but a lot of my classmates swear by their MacBooks. For me, I didnt want to have to learn something new on TOP of all the nursing stuff so I just got a new laptop. I did, however, buy an iPad. I could not decide and finally I bit the bullet and got the iPad and I am SO glad I did! I bring it with me every day. We have ebooks as part of the package of books we got. I thought I'd never use them but its so nice to be able to look something up without dragging 92 pounds of books every day! I could not live with either my laptop or my iPad!

Up Vote Up Vote ×

I have a 17" Compaq laptop, an iPad, a 12" Acer netbook and a Samsung Galaxy S4 phone and I love them all. If I had more dough I would add a MacBook Air to the mix to possibly replace the 17" laptop. It just depends on what I'm doing. The big laptop usually stays at home and I use it to type big papers. The small laptop goes to school when I have assignments and small stuff to do at school. The iPad and Samsung phone go to class to record my lectures and so I can have ebook access. If you were to go for only one and have a few bucks to spend, go with a MacBook Air. If you're on a budget, go with a 12" netbook. You can take both to and from school and you will be able to write papers and such on both. I have a slight problem with buying electronics though...heh...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Im a PC girl but a lot of my classmates swear by their MacBooks. For me I didnt want to have to learn something new on TOP of all the nursing stuff so I just got a new laptop. I did, however, buy an iPad. I could not decide and finally I bit the bullet and got the iPad and I am SO glad I did! I bring it with me every day. We have ebooks as part of the package of books we got. I thought I'd never use them but its so nice to be able to look something up without dragging 92 pounds of books every day! I could not live with either my laptop or my iPad![/quote']

I totally agree! I never thought I would use the ebooks until I got my iPad! I didn't have one for first semester and I hated lugging around 92 pounds of books! Now in 2nd semester I actually have the space in my backpack to bring a lunch to school. It's quite nice :)

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment