New nurses and technology

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!

iPhone link

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.