Introducing personal digital assistants to enhance nursing education in undergraduate and graduate nursing programs

This article describes how a school of nursing implemented an innovative program to introduce personal digital assistants to undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Undergraduate students studying pharmacology and nurse practitioner graduate students in an adult health course were asked to purc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of nursing education 2011-02, Vol.50 (2), p.115-118
Main Authors: Cibulka, Nancy J, Crane-Wider, Lottchen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Clinical medicine
Computers, Handheld
Core competencies
Education reform
Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate - methods
Education, Nursing, Graduate - methods
Educational materials
Educational technology
Female
Hospital systems
Hospitals
Humans
Information retrieval
Innovations
Male
Midwestern United States
Nurse Practitioners - education
Nurses
Nursing
Nursing Informatics - education
Patient satisfaction
Program Development
Program Evaluation
Reference Materials
Software
Student Financial Aid
Students
Teaching - methods
Technical support
Undergraduate Students
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Summary:This article describes how a school of nursing implemented an innovative program to introduce personal digital assistants to undergraduate and graduate nursing students. Undergraduate students studying pharmacology and nurse practitioner graduate students in an adult health course were asked to purchase a personal digital assistant privately or through the university bookstore. Faculty selected an appropriate software package. After students were oriented to the hardware and software package, innovative teaching strategies were implemented to help guide students to use their mobile devices to access clinically relevant information. Student feedback about this experience was positive. The most important elements for successful adoption of personal digital assistants are to provide training for both faculty and students, and to develop learning opportunities using the technology. Use of mobile technologies is an important competency that will improve the quality of nursing practice and therefore should be included in nursing curricula.
ISSN:0148-4834
1938-2421
DOI:10.3928/01484834-20101230-07