IT RN - Nurse meets technology head on

New year, new job, new tech

2011-08-26T09:47:00.003-05:00

It's not just the beginning of the school year for elementary and secondary students. It's also the start of a new year for me, as I'm going into my last full year as a master's student.

When I'm not going to school, I will be working as a telehealth nurse coordinator, to bring the benefits of telehealth technology to spinal cord injury/dysfunction patients throughout our service area. Telehealth is a global term which basically encompasses delivering health care via technology, whether it is via telephone, secure video conferencing or even text messaging.

Finally, this is a very exciting area of healthcare. I hope to learn more and pass it on.

The drought is over...

2011-03-18T20:23:00.004-05:00

I'm hoping it is anyway! Greetings to all!

I'm happy to say I'm alive and kicking and busy, busy, busy as an informatics grad student. Hopefully, by this time next year, I'll be well into completing my last year.

Anyway, there are so many interesting things I could talk about, but this news item today in the New York Times about RSA SecureIDs nearly stopped me in my tracks. I used one of these for quite some time and yes, multifactor authentication is the way to go for logins, but this is scary.

Remember to use complex passwords and rotate them on a regular basis. If your system allows it, use special characters (note: these may be limited), numbers, as well as both upper and lower case letters. Also, do not use words commonly found in the dictionary or things easily found out about you (i.e. your address, phone number, birth date, etc.)

If necessary, create your own rotating password and vary the special characters and caps every three months or however necessary.

As they used to say on one old police show, "Let's be careful out there!"

What is nursing terminology?

2010-05-16T14:27:00.003-05:00

I've spent a semester studying this and used some really great quotes to summarize what they are and why nursing must use terminologies to describe our work and bill appropriately for it. However, I believe Thede and Sewell state it most simply: "standardized terminology is a list of terms with agreed upon definitions so that when a term is used it means the same thing to everyone." This is even more important as electronic health records become the norm for patients.

Nursing care, contrary to popular belief, is not billed separately, as many specialties are, in your typical hospital bill. We fit right in there with the room rate and paper towels. While we work 24/7 to be the "eyes and ears" of your physician, who pops in and out, and actually do work ordered by them (which incidentally, is about 33-40% of your bill) and other folks, our work has yet to be specifically defined. Implementation of standardized terminologies and data sets aims to do this.

If after reading this little bit, you are still horribly confused, I highly recommend Thede and Sewell's book, Informatics and Nursing: Competencies and Applications. It's a great overall book to start with for any nursing and computers topic about which you might have questions.

Once you've read a few chapters and want to delve into the intricacies of what exactly those terminologies are, see the links below for the ANA(American Nurses Association) recognized terminologies.

NANDA-I (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association International)
http://www.nanda.org/

Omaha System
http://www.omahasystem.org/overview.html/

CCC (Clinical Care Classification)
http://www.sabacare.com/

ICNP (International Classification of Nursing Practice)
http://www.icn.ch/pillarsprograms/about-icnpr/

NIC (Nursing Intervention Classification)
http://www.nursing.uiowa.edu/excellence/nursing_knowledge/clinical_effectiveness/nic.htm

NOC (Nursing Outcome Classification)
http://www.nursing.uiowa.edu/excellence/nursing_knowledge/clinical
_effectiveness/noc.htm

PDNS (Perioperative Nursing Data Set)
http://www.aorn.org/PracticeResources/PNDSAndStandardizedPeriopera
tiveRecord/PNDSHistoryAndMission/

SNOMED-CT (Systemized NOmenclature of MEDicine)
http://www.ihtsdo.org/snomed-ct/

LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes)
http://loinc.org/

ABC codes (ABC Coding Solutions -formerly Alternative Link)
http://www.alternativelink.com/ali/abc_codes/

Enjoy your explorations of nursing terminology!

Interesting WSJ article

2010-04-13T09:44:00.002-05:00

Can Technology Cure Health Care? (from www.wsj.com)

Some say yes, some say no, but it will always be a debate, and an interesting one at that.
I found this article is interesting to read from a nursing perspective. No nurses appear to have been interviewed for this article.

A true pioneer

2010-04-02T20:33:00.001-05:00

No COWs or WOWs would exist without this guy, or a couple of his friends.

My virtual tour --HIMSS

2010-03-02T16:10:00.003-06:00

I mentioned the coverage of HIMSS10 earlier today, but I have to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed attending via Better Health's coverage at UStream.

If you can't be there, you can interact with the folks at the booth via chat, and trust me, it's very interactive.

Many thanks to Dr. Val, Dr. Anonymous and the whole crew.

HIMSS10 live from Atlanta

2010-03-02T09:34:00.002-06:00

Check out the happenings at HIMSS10 live from Atlanta for the latest and greatest in IT for healthcare.

Happy New Year

2010-01-19T12:10:00.003-06:00

And 2010 is starting with a bang, literally and figuratively.

The Haiti earthquake is creating a ripple effect on how people donate to charities as noted in this article on texting for a cause (from www.usatoday.com). Also in Haiti, Partners in Health is proving IT can make healthcare delivery possible, even in remote areas of the country without landlines (from www.healthcareitnews.com)

iPods and iPhones have become commonplace in everyday living, but in hospitals? Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA is bringing them to their hospital to end the clutter of multiple pagers and other devices nurses are required to carry. At the University of North Carolina, interpreters are using them as well to get rid of pagers.

Finally, since grad school will be starting again soon, I've been checking out a few things on SNOMED. Want to know more? Check out this page at the National Library of Medicine.

Disaster planning

2009-10-12T09:57:00.004-05:00

Yes, it's a big deal in IT, and some people can't get enough of it. I found a great article at techsoup recently about this very subject. It's geared to non-profits, but the concepts are important nevertheless, and some of the tools can be used at home, and best of all, some are free. CSO Online has a great general section on disaster planning called Business Continuity and Disaster Planning Also, if you're interested in disaster planning in general, don't forget to check www.ready.gov.

Second, for individuals, disaster planning is a big deal, too, and not just with computers. If you own a Sidekick phone, you may be interested in this article. One server goes down and takes all your info with it...ouch!

And finally, while it's not a natural disaster, phishing and social engineering can cause lots of other disasters. This article called 9 Dirty Tricks discusses just a few of the latest scams out there.

Tales from graduate school

2009-09-05T16:38:00.005-05:00

Well, here I am at school...and with you all. How am I doing it? I am doing it by way of distance learning and learning management tools, such as Blackboard.

I tried to start earlier by reading ahead, but I inadvertently bought the wrong book. Many titles by giants in particular areas look si milar or have similarities in titles, authors or groups of authors. Moral of the story: get the ISBN. When you have the ISBN, you'll never, ever buy the wrong book (90% of the time).

For the most part, I'm enjoying myself. I've upgraded my laptop and as a result, I'm having fun today moving some files from the old one via Belkin's Easy Transfer cable. I'll update you on that once I get it done.

I'm looking forward to using more collaboration tools in Blackboard as well as other tools such as Skype to work with my group. If nothing else, this course will help me learn more about online collaboration.

eICU

2009-08-24T17:23:00.004-05:00

A co-worker was talking about this concept because she had the fortune (or misfortune) of being an ICU patient recently. She found it highly entertaining that she was being monitored from afar, and that the person doing the monitoring actually interacted with her.

This article discusses a recent study about the effectiveness of eICU and telemonitoring in ICUs.

In the news and helpful hints

2009-07-20T14:04:00.003-05:00

VA halts 45 IT projects (from www.healthcareitnews.com)

SSO provides relief for password headaches (also www.healthcareitnews.com)
SSO, or Single Sign On, is one, long overdue piece that is left out of many network authentication systems. Signing on to multiple information systems (mainframe, PC, etc.) during the course of a day can be mind-boggling, considering security and logging issues in hospital systems.

HINT: Do yourself a favor--rotate your passwords in a scheme you can remember. Don't write them down, but do write down any hints that may help you remember your scheme. If you rotate them regularly, based on your network rules (every 30, 60, 90 days, etc.), it's easier to remember, too. There are some password keeper programs (such as this one from SplashData) you may be able to use on a personal device (i.e. PDA, smartphone). Whatever you do...don't write your passwords down anywhere they can be used to access your account.

Ask your system administrator (if they'll tell you) how many unique passwords you need to have in a year. Many system administrators require xx amount of unique passwords per year or per system. In one of my former lives, our system kept a record of your last 6 passwords; another system only four.

Great video

2009-06-21T11:09:00.002-05:00

As a nurse, you're subject to lots of demands for your time and lots and lots of in-services on new equipment and procedures.

Here's a funny look at information overload courtesy of Xerox.

Online sources...beware!

2009-05-12T10:00:00.002-05:00

Time and time again we read about mistakes. Here's another strike against Wikipedia: Irish student hoaxes world media.

Vet your sources carefully!

IT items of note

2009-05-11T11:06:00.002-05:00

Here are a few interesting articles of note from the internet.

Nurse reflects on decades of caring (from www.citizen.com in Lavonia, NH)
A unique perspective on nursing and technology in today's environment

Nurses face a digital divide (from www.nursezone.com)

And for something a little different...
Cadets trade the trenches for firewalls (from www.nytimes.com)

Gadgets galore

2009-05-05T18:20:00.000-05:00

The latest smartphone out there is the Palm Pre. While it's not out on the market yet, if you'd like to try out this technology and talk about it, you get a free six-month subscription and a Pre.

Check out this offer on the official Palm blog.

New product from Unbound Medicine

2009-04-24T06:52:00.002-05:00

The Handbook of Nursing Diagnosis by Lynda Juall Carpenito-Moyet, RN, MSN,CRNP was a very popular tool for me in nursing school. This little book has lots of nursing diagnosis information in it and is now available in electronic format.

Get it from Unbound for your Palm, iPhone, Blackberry or Windows Mobile enabled device at www.unboundmedicine.com

More on Twitter

2009-04-23T14:12:00.002-05:00

Lo and behold, I get a great bunch of links from my listservs. Here are a few of the gems noted below.

How to Safely Blend Personal and Professional from www.cio.com

How to Search Twitter Smarter also from www.cio.com

Tweet, twitter...what?

2009-04-22T15:21:00.004-05:00

If you're overcome by anxiety because you don't know what those two words mean, they refer to one of the most talked about internet tools right now...Twitter. There's even a really great YouTube video on how Twitter works called "Twitter in Plain English".

Many folks with blogs, such as yours truly, also maintain Twitter feeds, which allow posts of 140 characters or less. Distilling posts down to 140 characters can be tricky, though. Since I don't own an iPhone and since I don't always have wifi access for my Palm, I'm currently staying out of the Twitter realm for this blog. Frankly, my day-to-day life may be exciting, but some of my stuff I can't tell you. It's five letters and starts with an H----...and it's not HORSE, but rather HIPAA.

The good folks at Clinical Cases and Images, though, are right in the fray. Here are a few of their thoughts on what's going on with medical blogging and Twitter.

In the news

2009-04-13T13:39:00.002-05:00

Joint health record for DoD and the VA:
http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/obama-announces-new-joint-health-record-dod-va

An interesting article about the demand for clinicians with informatics experience:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/jobs/12starts.html

News items of note

2009-03-27T09:06:00.005-05:00

Yes, I'm still here but busy working and prepping for every kind of test you can imagine.

Here are a few news items I've culled of interest in IT. Note: not all of them pertain directly to your life on the floor as an RN, but they tell the background story of the world of IT right now.

Think they can't outsource health care? Think again. Infosys, one of the largest IT outsourcing shops in the world is looking at taking on the US health care market (from the WSJ Health Blog.)
President Obama discusses the importance of IT in health care yet again.

Emerging Technologies in Nurse Education is a seminar sponsored by Reed Elsevier, primarily for nursing educators. It brings up some very interesting topics, particularly use of simulator tools for nursing students.

GeekDoctor brings up another hot IT topic: Green IT. Green IT discusses ways of saving energy in the use of IT equipment by powering down servers and workstations when they are not in use. This can be better said than done in a 24/7/365 health care environment, and GeekDoctor highlights some interesting solutions.

One RN describes a weekend without technology on her unit in this article. End of Shift: Nurses get Back to Basics. (from http://www.nurse.com/)

And finally, in the cool toys section, http://www.medgadget.com/ discusses the latest and greatest pulse oximeter. I'd really love to have one of these on the floor!

Education

2009-02-22T08:38:00.006-06:00

Right now, I'm contemplating several online master's degree programs, particularly an informatics degree. It can be a chore, since there are lots and lots of programs out there right now, called health care informatics, nursing informatics and medical informatics.

If you're a nurse and want to be board certified in informatics by the ANCC, you need the following:

Hold a current, active RN license within a state or territory of the United States or the professional, legally recognized equivalent in another country
Have practiced the equivalent of two years full time as a registered nurse
Hold a baccalaureate or higher degree in nursing or a baccalaureate degree in a relevant field
Have completed 30 hours of continuing education in informatics within the last three years and meet one of the following practice requirements:
Have a practiced minimum of 2,000 hours in informatics nursing within the last three years
Have practiced a minimum of 1,000 hours in informatics nursing in the last three years and completed a minimum of 12 semester hours of academic credit in informatics courses which are a part of a graduate level informatics nursing program
Have completed a graduate program in nursing informatics containing a minimum of 200 hours of faculty supervised practicum in informatics

For more information on education in nursing informatics, check out ANIA's Education page (American Nursing Informatics Association).

Just what is The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?

2009-02-12T11:37:00.003-06:00

The technical terms are here on the House of Representatives site. GeekDoctor has his own post on this legislation at his blog.

If you're really into EHR (electronic health record) and exactly what it is and what's out there, don't miss The Ultimate Guide to Taking Control of your Health Records.

And in the etc. category, Nursing Central recently updated Taber's on it's Palm platform. This nurse is thoroughly enjoying it, even if I don't have wifi access on my device at work.

Change of Shift is up...

2008-12-11T15:47:00.004-06:00

And yours truly is listed for the first time!

If you've never been to Change of Shift, head on over to www.emergiblog.com for the whole story. Change of Shift is predominantly nurse bloggers blogging about nursing or nursing-related topics. It's a must read for any nurse. Check it out!

'Tis the season

2008-11-30T13:05:00.004-06:00

Ah, the snow is coming down in our neck of the woods and the malls and stores all have extended hours for shopping. Tomorrow is a big day on the internet called Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) where lots of people go online and start their holiday shopping instead of being in the stores on Black Friday.

If you're trapped at work and want to shop, it sounds like a great deal. However, be certain to check with your IS staff if you're not sure (or if your boss hasn't reminded you) of your organization's acceptable internet use policy.

Most companies have Acceptable Use policies (or AUPs) for a number of reasons. One, it sets up a code of conduct for how you will use the internet at work. Rule of thumb: normally, if your internet use is for business use, or can be justified for business use, it's normally okay. Another item to look for: many businesses allow employees to use the internet for personal reasons while on their breaks or lunch time.

Two, in many cases, when you sign an Acceptable Use agreement, you state that you will follow the guidelines or you can be disciplined or even terminated. A few examples of the quick and easy route to termination I've seen as an IT staffer: overuse of internet for non-business purposes and not doing your job, using the internet to run a side business during business hours and transmitting or receiving pornography.

Three, implementing acceptable use policies also helps alleviate the load on the network, so that you can do your normal business without having slowdowns due to everyone shopping or watching streaming video all day. Some companies use proxy servers and firewall software to enforce these rules on the network. The software can be simple or sophisticated, and can even tell your network staff how much time you're using and where you're going on the internet. If your organization doesn't want you going somewhere on the internet, the IT staff (or the firewall or proxy software) often blocks the offending site or sites.

So, what does this mean to you? Follow your organization's policy and use the internet as your organization deems fit. If your company lets you surf the internet on your lunch hour, have a blast shopping away!

More on online drug references

2008-11-25T11:39:00.004-06:00

Reuters recently had an article about Wikipedia and the accuracy of information there.

Medscape Drug Reference is another, mostly (about 80+ per cent of the time) correct drug reference that is freely available.

Other useful drug references on the web:

Online Healthcare IT expo

2008-11-18T20:36:00.003-06:00

Check out the HIMSS Virtual Conference and Expo tomorrow, November 19 and Thursday, November 20. Starting with the keynote at 0900 CST, you'll be able to access conference sessions online on various healthcare IT topics.

A full list of the conference topics is available in the Show Guide (PDF).

Some items of note

2008-11-12T10:08:00.005-06:00

I've been busy, so hence, I've neglected my postings to this blog. There are so many exciting things popping up in my mailbox from the different listservs and publications, that it is an enormous task to read them every day.

Here are a few items of interest I've found recently.

Do you use a PDA on your job or at home? Do you access e-mail in public places or read documents on it? You may be interested in the latest gadget--privacy screens for PDAs. These have been very common for desktop and laptop PCs in healthcare for a long time, but for many years, the prices were very prohibitive.

As with anything, the costs have come down and you can find a privacy screen for your PDA for under $20 at vendors such as http://www.pocketsolutions.com/. You name the device and they have accessories for it. They also have a large selection of accessories for smartphones and Blackberries, too.

This article from HealthData Management in April 2008 discusses the winners of the 2008 Nursing Information Technology Innovation Award. The situations described are prime examples of how IT is integrating into the nursing workflow to make a difference.

Medscape, as I've mentioned before, has a lot of neat things for nurses, but also has a section for NPs. This article describes some of the applications for nursing education for NPs, as more and more master's level programs go online.

In addition, since more folks are going online to learn via distance education on the internet, some colleges are turning to tools to make cheating more difficult. This article from the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses one tech option.

Finally, since I'm seeing a lot of articles about hospitals and technical redesigns to aid nurses in their work, I also found this recent article on how architects are now designing hospitals with the aid of doctors, nurses, and neuroscientists. On the same note, it's a little more dated, but this 2005 article discusses designing nurses' stations. This is important since physical plant restrictions can also play a part in implementing technology solutions.

Handy things to know about e-mail

2008-10-20T21:01:00.003-05:00

I've seen some interesting articles in the last couple of days about sending e-mails at different times of day and night and when not to send.

Here are a few articles of interest about handling e-mail. The best advice: handle your e-mail very carefully! What may be good manners in real life doesn't always translate well into e-mail.

Experts reveal e-mail nightmares, safety tips (from www.cnn.com)
This CNN article has some great cautionary tales about using e-mail carefully.

Drunk, dangerous and at the keyboard (from www.nytimes.com)
While this article doesn't discuss e-mailing from work, it does make you realize that sometimes you just need to step away from the keyboard.

Interoperability

2008-09-29T13:37:00.004-05:00

The big I is becoming more and more important for patients and healthcare staff. If you want to see a glimpse of the enormity of the discussions on this topic, search Google or your favorite search engine. The results for a recent search I did netted about 300,000 or so articles, from vendors, industry organizations and even ANSI sponsored groups, such as HITSP.

Interoperability of computer systems trickles down from the systems level, into the daily lives of a variety of personnel, including nurses. Most recently, the DOD (US Department of Defense) and VA (Veterans Administration) are working on this very issue to provide seamless healthcare to active military personnel and veterans.

A new technology/nursing article

2008-09-10T14:36:00.001-05:00

This one arrived in my mailbox this morning courtesy of http://www.nursinglink.com/

Technology and nursing

A good iPhone read

2008-09-07T15:31:00.003-05:00

If you love your iPhone, but wonder about what they left out, check out this article, Ten Features Still Missing from iPhone at www.informit.com.

InformIT is a great information technology resource that delves into security, certification and other business issues related to IT.

Need help? Just talk

2008-09-02T11:25:00.003-05:00

That's what many LTC facilities are now doing to manage charting, paging and care plan use. Vocollect Healthcare has a product called AccuNurse which helps staff document and do their jobs more efficiently through voice technology.

If you are an LTC nurse and want to sell this product, they are looking for you, too. (See this job listing.)

Technology in the news

2008-08-29T10:06:00.003-05:00

Hospitals and Health Networks magazine has an article about the implementation of IT on nursing in a rural hospital setting. Another article, also in this same magazine discusses wireless technology.

Since I carry a PalmPilot wherever I go, I'd be happy if there were more publicly accessible wireless access points in hospitals. It's very handy especially if your cell phone doesn't work well in the hospital.

One thing leads to another...

2008-08-28T13:11:00.003-05:00

My post on a PDA question in one area led to this guest post on www.realityrn.com, which is a nursing site geared to new nurses.

See more on the story about technology and new nurses at www.realityrn.com.

Informatics in the news

2008-08-13T06:19:00.003-05:00

While it's not the most earth-shattering article out there, my local paper, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which addresses business healthcare issues on Wednesdays, has an article about the growing field of informatics in healthcare.

And in the better late than never section...I forgot to mention this recent article which talks about AHLTA and VistA (Armed forces and VA computer systems) from Heathcare IT News.

New nurses and technology

2008-08-09T18:47:00.003-05:00

As a nurse, technology does markedly affect my job. I am surrounded by it in a plethora of PCs, pumps, and other assorted devices. If you thought you knew everything there is to know about technology, you will learn even more once you hit the floor of your local hospital. We are surrounded by devices in every aspect of our daily lives, so hospitals and other healthcare facilities are no different.

What do you need to know about the technology, if you are new to nursing? First, be comfortable with the skills you already have. They can readily be used in new applications. Second, be willing to invest time in learning those new skills. Thankfully, many of the technology folks who create those applications you use to check labs, fill out forms and complete your charting realize that simple applications are usually better. Third, learn what the standards are at your workplace. You can often find resources in your nursing education department, on your local workplace intranet or with your friendly technology support staff. Use every resource available to you.

Finally, if you want to carry your resources around with you, and your facility permits it, get your favorite device and put various resources on it. I couldn't have made it through nursing school or my first year as a nurse without my Palm TX and my medication, lab and medical dictionary references on it. Knowledge is power, so don’t be afraid. Go out and learn!

SINI starts tomorrow

2008-07-15T18:22:00.003-05:00

SINI (aka Summer Institute in Nursing Informatics) starts tomorrow at the University of Maryland. The hi-blogs.info group will have coveritlive sessions during the conference.

If you're even remotely interested in informatics, be sure to check it out.

Never assume...

2008-07-12T20:32:00.005-05:00

That was my lesson this week. I work with a lot of very experienced nurses who know a lot of things. I found out this week that many of them do not know how to use many of the office automation tools we have access to on our computers.

Case in point, one nurse needed help dealing with attachments in Outlook. Another needed information on how to open attached PDFs and fill them out. Still another needed help troubleshooting what was going wrong with her e-mail.

We have an assigned support person (who, incidentally has another job besides user support) but she's on vacation. As a result, yours truly got to be the support tech on the floor. I don't mind it at all, but it does show how technology skills are being thought of as natural requirements, especially for new nurses, most of whom, have worked with technology during their entire nursing school experience. Happily, our hospital system is recognizing the need for additional computer training for both nurses and ancillary staff and is making it available to those who wish to utilize it.

Here are a few articles of note on this subject.

A new definition for nursing informatics (from AdvanceWEB)
This editorial describes the field of nursing informatics.

This article, The impact of information technology on nursing practice and knowledge by Melanie Anne Cox was featured in a book called Consumer-Centered Computer-Supported Healthcare for Healthy People.

Telehealth and the VA

2008-07-08T13:25:00.002-05:00

In this age of rising fuel and healthcare costs, telehealth is becoming more important.

The VA (Department of Veterans Affairs) health system is using telehealth both for convenience and greater access to care for US military veterans. The Office of Care Coordination discusses the various telehealth initiatives of the VA.

Here is some feedback about the VA's telehealth model: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/story.cms?id=9491&page=1

Tech in the news

2008-07-08T13:03:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of interesting articles in the news of interest to nurses.

Microsoft is targeting nurses for versions of its online applications (from http://www.bloomberg.com/ 7/8/08)

On another older note, Microsoft talks about the role of nurses and technology.
Nurses want technology that works the way they do

What is that orange pill I found?

2008-04-05T18:54:00.005-05:00

When in doubt, it makes sense to check out the monographs, if available, in your drug guides. Print ones are not often updated as quickly as online ones, so for a recent question on my floor, we headed to the internet.

First, we checked http://www.epocrates.com/ and searched through their medication lists based on what a couple other nurses thought the mystery pill was. ePocrates will give you a picture of the pill if you know which drug you are looking for in a list. You cannot search for a drug by color or shape of the pill or capsule.

For testing purposes to see if there was a database to search by color, we used LiveSearch and found this site: http://gsm.about.com/pid/main.asp on http://www.about.com/ which allows you to plug in pill shape and color. Once complete, you will get a list (also with photos, if available, and markings) which can help you identify your pill. This helped us identify the mystery pill as a generic Xanax 1mg tab. The markings also helped us hone in on the exact pill, even if the photo was not available.

Another web site of interest we encountered today was http://www.pdrhealth.com/. It is another web site from the PDR desktop folks with information specifically directed to consumers. In particular, there is an interesting section on drug trials and recently FDA approved medications.

Alas, the old adage to check it out really is true, and the internet makes the resolutions even faster.

Unbound Medicine on iPhone

2008-03-24T06:27:00.002-05:00

Correction:
Unbound Medicine does have titles available for iPhone on their web site now, including Nursing Central.

Decisions, decisions....now all I have to do is get an iPhone.

iPhone link

2008-03-16T14:50:00.002-05:00

I found this link while surfing around the other day:

iPhoneMedicine

Dr. Salvatore Volpe has lots of information regarding various products and services available for iPhone. The latest news, which was really interesting to me, is that ePocrates is working on a version for iPhone. You can access ePocrates online version on your iPhone right now. You can see what it looks like at the ePocrates site.

And yes, Dr. Volpe, if they port Unbound Medicine and Skyscape apps to iPhone, I'm gonna ask Santa for one.

The latest news on IT for nurses

2008-03-14T20:01:00.003-05:00

I've been busy myself learning the ins and outs of the VistA computer system for nurses. Here are some of the latest stories I've found about IT and nurses.

More nurses embrace IT (from nursezone.com)

CIN Computers, Informatics and Nursing - abstracts and links to articles available free at www.medscape.com

Nurses prefer contact to computers (from whatifpost.com)

An oldie but goodie that warrants a second look:
The potential use of blogs in nursing education (also from CIN)

Articles of note

2008-01-10T18:38:00.001-06:00

It was a busy end of the year for me, both personally and professionally. My resolution this year is to work further on this blog and point the way to some of the better articles out there.

As I mentioned before, I find a lot of good things in my mailbox via listservs. Here's one from the nrsing-l listserv

Infection control and mobile devices
Time savers or harbors for infection? This article brings up some pretty valid points about infection control and IT collaboration.

Online nursing resources update

2007-10-20T12:25:00.000-05:00

As I've mentioned before, nursing listservs are full of information that arrives straight to your mailbox.

I recently received an e-mail from a listserv I'm on that points the way to a list of nursing resources all in one place.

Essential Nursing Resources is available in PDF format or in HTML format at the NLN web site, so have a look and see for yourself the varied content and listings available.

Many thanks to Carol Bickford from the ANA for this and all your other posts to the nrsing-l mailing list.

ePocrates deal

2007-09-28T05:25:00.000-05:00

Lo and behold, I look in my e-mail box today, and ePocrates has a 20% off deal at www.epocrates.com until October 4 on its Essentials product.

Use DLXPROMO in the discount code box.

NOEdb

2007-09-27T10:49:00.000-05:00

I found this link recently.

http://noedb.org/ NOEdb - Nursing Online Education Database has links to nursing education programs and a library with links to various sites of interest 100 Web Resources for Medical Professionals.

Nursing Central deal

2007-09-25T20:03:00.000-05:00

If you've tried Nursing Central by Unbound Medicine and you'd like to buy it, put Nurse20 in the promotions code section of your order form to get 20% of the list price until October for this handy Palm software or any software in the Unbound Medicine collection.

Handling the information in your life - newsletters, listservs

2007-09-06T10:57:00.000-05:00

I get a lot of e-mail. Sometimes, I think I get too much e-mail, but I find, in some ways, it's a convenient way to keep abreast of a lot of topics, without getting too involved unless I'd like to do so.

One way I do this is to use newsletters and listservs (also known as mailing lists) to keep up with information on various topics. Many web sites offer e-mail newsletters on a weekly or monthly to quarterly basis.

Here are some sites with these features I use and what I like about them.

1. http://www.nursezone.com/
NurseZone has several newsletters available that will link you to the latest stories on their web site. This is very helpful, since I don't always have a lot of time to surf to each one individually. It's very simple--they send out the newsletter with the latest topics and if one piques your interest, simply click on the link in the e-mail.

2. http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Nursing/
This site has a good compilation of information in two pages for newsletters, nursing sites and links to mailing lists.

3. http://consortiumlibrary.org/hsis/find/internet/mailing_lists.php
This page, from the University of Alaska at Anchorage has links to nursing mailing lists and other information on finding nursing mailing lists of your choice.

4. Your friendly, neighborhood nursing association.
I live in Missouri, and our organization MONA (the Missouri Nurses Association) has newsletters and other information on its web site. For more information and web site links to your state nursing association, check out ANA Nursing World.

Where to look -- information on the web

2007-09-02T09:35:00.000-05:00

My first inclination when looking for technology articles of interest to me as a nurse is to turn the web and poke around in the search engines. My personal favorite is Google (also the parent company of blogger.com) Google, like many other search engines, uses proprietary algorithms to find articles based on your searches. This is quick and easy, but depending on the search term, it can be a bit overwhelming. The University of Berkeley offers this page called Googling to the Max with information on how to get the most out of your Google searches.

From my university days not so long ago, we learned about the subscription databases, such as Medline and the greatest nursing database ever, CINAHL. These tend to be very expensive, and unless you're enrolled in a class with library access or your facility provides this access to you, you may have to seek alternative resources.

Searching the web for cogent articles for you as a nurse can be challenging, but there are a variety of free resources that are decent and referenced to quality research. Here are some of my favorites below:

Medscape Nursing
This section of the http://www.medscape.com/ site discusses news, industry information and has sections on specialty areas of nursing, as well as opportunities for continuing education.

eMedicine
This site's entry paragraph says it all:

The original open access comprehensive medical textbook for all clinical fields
10,000 Contributors 6,500 Articles

I have found it to be very useful for a quick study on a disease process and its treatments. It was invaluable for me as a student because it allowed me to learn information quickly about a disease or disorder. I still use it today. I found it most helpful recently when I had a patient with Fournier's gangrene.

Finally, the National Institutes of Health also has a wide variety of information for both nurses and patients, as well as links to research topics, grant information, and links to specialty centers of the NIH such as National Cancer Institute and other centers.

Drug information abounds on the web. It is available from specific manufacturers or from sites such as NIH at MedlinePlus drug information, http://www.rxlist.com/, or at http://www.drugs.com/. Please note that some sites may require purchasing a subscription to access further data.

What do you carry in your pockets?

2007-08-30T11:38:00.001-05:00

With all the stuff I have to carry around as I work on the floor, I could not live without my PalmPilot TX. I got mine while I was in nursing school after my clinical instructor showed me hers. She also told me about a great program called ePocrates, which incorporates drug guides, calculators and other reference tools, such as lab and diagnostic test information in one package. It sure beats carrying around a med book, notebook and calculator since it's all on your Palm. Cost varies based on subscription length and version of ePocrates (Essentials, Deluxe, etc.) you choose.

ePocrates

Pros:

It has a history feature that shows you what you've already looked up.
The look and feel is similar to going through a file and easy to figure out once you sit down and play with it.
You can also set it up to update daily through your PDA using a home or business wireless connection.
A free version is available if you are interested in trying it out before you buy it.

Cons:

This resource is written primarily for physicians, so nursing diagnoses, assessment, and implications are not readily available in this product.

Nursing Central

While ePocrates is a program written primarily for physicians, Nursing Central, is a similar product for your PDA written especially for nurses. I have been using this product for the past month, and I really appreciate the various features.

This suite incorporates Davis' Drug Guide, Taber's Medical Cyclopedia, Medline journal abstract information, as well as disease and lab test information. Cost $150. Discounts are often available if you download the trial version.

Pros:

The layout uses drop down menus and is also easy to navigate.
There is a free trial version available if you want to try before you buy.

Cons:

There is no history feature, so if you have to go back to a med or test later, you have to start all over again.
Reading some of the charts (if you don't pay attention carefully to the instructions) can be difficult.

There are other nursing programs out there worth investigating. Check out handango.com to see the wide array of products for nurses, such as RN Crash Cart and IV drip calculator.

Day one

2007-08-30T11:27:00.000-05:00

Welcome to IT RN. The intent of this blog is to find the best articles and links to technology resources of interest to practicing nurses.

I'm not affiliated with any technology companies, so I hope to just throw you the links to interesting sites and articles and let you decide for yourselves what you like and what you don't like.

Any opinions expressed in this blog are my two cents and do not imply any warranty or guarantee. Consequently, if you landed here for health care advice, I suggest you contact your friendly, neighborhood health care provider for information tailored specifically to your needs, since this blog is about technology in the health care setting.

Technology is ever expanding and its role in nursing is, too. I hope this blog can provide additional information on how it can and will make a difference in your nursing practice.

Thanks for visiting and let's get it! IT RN is technology for nurses.