I am planning on taking a critical care nursing course over the summer and fall. Along with the list of textbooks suggested, they also encourage us to get a PDA. I was curious to see if any nurses out there had one, and how they felt about it. Is it useful? Do you use it on a regular basis? (I admit, I am worried that it is just another thing for me to worry about falling out of my pocket into an overflowing bedpan!)

If you do have one, what type do you have? Do you like it? Do you have any suggestions for someone looking to buy a PDA for the first time?

Thanks

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"I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world"
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I got one and was very excited to use it at work, but ended up never doing so. I didn't use it often enough to justify it taking up so much real estate in my pocket!

If I needed to look something up, I simply looked it up on the internet on one of the computers. Or *gasp* in a book

Overall I liked it. It's a Palm Tungsten I think. Maybe you can get one cheap on Ebay or something.

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code blog

I am on my second PDA. I got my first one as a student. It was a dell, the second is an HP iPAC. I love it. I have bought a drug guide, an IV drug guide, and a lab manual, plus skyscape throws in a free calculator called Archimedes.

It fits easily in a pocket, and I like having the drug info easily at hand, plus I use the calendar like no one's business -- I like getting those audible reminders of upcoming events.

I recommend the HP b/c it uses a microsoft interface meaning that I can upload/download word and excel documents to it.

Some would say that PDAs are becoming dinosaurs, PDA/phones are now the rage. I like having the two as separate accessories, but that may be just me. Hope that helps!

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A Window For Your Home: Stories of dying and doctoral education

http://awfyh.blogspot.com/

magic is the deliberate manipulation of coincidence

I got a PDA when I first started orientation as a critical care nurse. Just about the only thing I used it for was to play Bejeweled.

It seems like there was always a computer terminal around if I wanted to look something up, and that was vastly more easy than going into my Palm pilot.

I think an iPhone or touch would be much more useful (albeit more $$$).

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I have an HP iPac... my second one. I love mine and I love the fact that it does not have a phone attached to it. I use mine on a daily basis and feel lost when I've accidentally forgotten it at home. I purchased a "Nursing Bundle" from Medical Wizards that has a multitude of resourses that are at my fingertips. It even has a tabers. I don't have to wait in line to look up a drug I want to give and drug calculations are a snap.

I use it as an educational tool as well because it allows me to look up the primary reasons for using a drug. My bundle includes a Fluid Wizard for burns, ACLS, PALS, ER Suite (that has all the adult drips and such that are not used often, but when they are used you find yourself looking them up each and every time.

I keep meeting times, when schedule requests are due in the calander portion and I keep all my notes on it so that I don't forget to do anything.

As you can tell, I can't say enough good things about my iPAC, I think I'd be lost without it.

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I'll second the comment that I'm glad I have my phone separate from my PDA. I don't want to have a phone on my person when I'm at work, and I also like being able to use my phone and look at my PDA simultaneously.

And yes, I'd go nuts if I lost this version of my brain. What nursing bundle one would want probably depends on one's focus. I just checked out Medical Wizards it has some pretty cools stuff. What I like about Skyscape (and it may be that Medical Wizards does this too), is that your purchase includes one year of updates for their drug guides, so you don't have to wait for an entire new edition. I also really like having a separate IV manual for the ease of dealing w/compatibility and some other aspects. The nice thing is that almost everyone give free trials (you don't get full functionality, but you get a sense of what it does and how the the interface works).

I also bought a keyboard, and, before I had my tiny Sony Vaio laptop would take it to classes and to conferences to take notes. I also recommend you get extra memory.

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A Window For Your Home: Stories of dying and doctoral education

http://awfyh.blogspot.com/

magic is the deliberate manipulation of coincidence

Thanks everyone for your opinions. I guess my next question is Palm or Pocket PC? I know that Palm OS has been around much longer, but pocket pc's are windows based... But from what I have seen in my browsing, most of the programs i need are available in both.

Thanks again!

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"I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world"
http://nurse-ali.blogspot.com/

I have had two different brands of pocket pcs Dell & HP. I'd go with the PC base as I like being able to move word and excel files back and forth. Also, back in the day, you tended to be able to have larger memory on a pocket pc for the money.

That said, I've never used a palm

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A Window For Your Home: Stories of dying and doctoral education

http://awfyh.blogspot.com/

magic is the deliberate manipulation of coincidence

Is it wrong that my first thought on seeing the title of this thread was "Ah, I hate it when people make out at work."

PDA = public display of affection.


Snort.

I need help.

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Julie

My Blog ER RN

Lol! I was wondering if anyone else would think that. I did think of that when I put in the title of the post. Hee hee.

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"I am fairly certain that given a cape and a nice tiara, I could save the world"
http://nurse-ali.blogspot.com/