Great video

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.

IT items of note

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)

Change of Shift is up...

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!

Some items of note

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.

Need help? Just talk

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.)

Tech in the news

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

Day one

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.