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PubMedDate not supplied

Tracking clinical use of personal digital assistant reference resources.

Mechanisms are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of ever-increasing technological resources for nursing student use. The authors tracked the use of personal digital assistants versus textbook resources by junior-level baccalaureate nursing students throughout 1 semester. The authors discuss the results of that activity and provide a starting point for the evaluation of the use of personal digital assistants by nursing students.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2001

The ABCs of PDAs.

The popularity of personal digital assistants (PDAs) continues to rise, due mostly to the convenience and reliability they offer caregivers.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed2003

Telemetry beyond the ICU.

A Texas hospital uses telemetric oxygenation monitoring on medical/surgical floors to decrease critical care admissions for patients at risk of respiratory compromise.

Computers, Handheld↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Implementing a total joint registry using personal digital assistants. A proof of concept.

The PalmPilot Data Entry System with CaptureWare was developed to collect information, such as quality-of-life surveys and standardized orthopaedic clinical evaluations, on a PalmPilot personal digital assistant (PDA). The user downloads this information directly from the PDA into a Microsoft Access Database where software programs analyze the information. Before this technology was available, manual information entry into the database from paper forms was required. This necessitated the expense of data-entry personnel and resulted in a paper quagmire. The PDA system eliminates both these problems. This article discusses general PDA use in the medical field, then describes the PalmPilot Data Entry System experience for one firm, Orthopaedic Associates, Ltd. The firm is a community-based practice, with 4 orthopaedic surgeons who have used the system for 6 months. The PDA Data Entry System was inexpensive and easy to use and, overwhelmingly, generated positive response from patients, nurses, and physicians.

Arthroplasty, Replacement↗
PubMed2004

Personal digital assistant use in Florida obstetrics and gynecology residency programs.

OBJECTIVES: Improvements in electronic technologies have resulted in affordable, smaller computers that operate at faster speeds. The personal digital assistant (PDA) is a tool that has the potential to enhance residency education by allowing residents immediate access to an abundance of information. This article assesses the current use of this tool at obstetrics and gynecology residency programs in the state of Florida. METHODS: The authors conducted a statewide survey addressing the general question: is the PDA useful in an obstetrics and gynecology residency training program? Specifically, the authors asked residents how much time was perceived to be saved weekly with the use of this tool, and in what aspect of their training use of this tool was most helpful. RESULTS: At the survey's close, five of seven programs had returned the survey for evaluation. These five institutions included both university- and community-based residency programs. Forty percent of obstetrics and gynecology residents at these programs responded to this questionnaire. Resident responses to the survey revealed that most of the perceived benefit was in maintaining procedural statistics logs, pharmacology reference manuals, and personal clinical protocols. Most responses revealed that only minimal time savings (<2 h/wk) were gained with using this tool. However, many residents felt they were not using this tool to its maximum potential. Nearly 90% of those who responded felt that the PDA should be available at residency programs and anticipated using it after completing residency. CONCLUSIONS: This study posed the question of PDA usefulness at obstetric and gynecology residency programs in the state of Florida. Although not all programs provided their residents with a PDA, 95% of the respondents revealed that they owned one of these tools. Experience at the authors' institution revealed high expectations for the potential uses of a PDA. Although many residents were not using this tool to its full potential, a PDA tutorial session could educate residents on the many applications available for PDAs, including applications to maintain on-call schedules and sign-out lists, statistics and procedure logs for credentialing and board certification, electronic billing, and electronic prescriptions.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Cardiovascular point of care initiative: enhancements in clinical data management.

The Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC) initiated a program in 1996 to improve the quality and usefulness of clinical outcomes data. After years of using a commercial vendor product and enduring a tedious collection process, the department decided to develop its own tools to support quality improvement efforts. Using a hand-held personal data assistant (PDA), the team developed tools that allowed ongoing data collection at the point of care delivery. The tools and methods facilitated the collection of real time, accurate information that allowed EAMC to participate in multiple clinical quality initiatives. The ability to conduct rapid-cycle performance improvement studies propelled EAMC's Cardiovascular Surgery Program into the Top 100 as recognized by HCIA, now Solucient, for 3 consecutive years (1999-2001). This report will describe the evolution of the data collection process as well as the quality improvements that resulted.

Alabama↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Point of care use of a personal digital assistant for patient consultation management: experience of an intravenous resource nurse team in a major Canadian teaching hospital.

The development and integration of a personal digital assistant (PDA)-based point-of-care database into an intravenous resource nurse (IVRN) consultation service for the purposes of consultation management and service characterization are described. The IVRN team provides a consultation service 7 days a week in this 1000-bed tertiary adult care teaching hospital. No simple, reliable method for documenting IVRN patient care activity and facilitating IVRN-initiated patient follow-up evaluation was available. Implementation of a PDA database with exportability of data to statistical analysis software was undertaken in July 2001. A Palm IIIXE PDA was purchased and a three-table, 13-field database was developed using HanDBase software. During the 7-month period of data collection, the IVRN team recorded 4868 consultations for 40 patient care areas. Full analysis of service characteristics was conducted using SPSS 10.0 software. Team members adopted the new technology with few problems, and the authors now can efficiently track and analyze the services provided by their IVRN team.

British Columbia↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Public health nurses' perceptions of mobile computing in a school program.

The use of mobile computing (MC) in healthcare practice has grown substantially in recent years, yet little is known about its impact. This descriptive, exploratory, qualitative study explored the perceptions of public health nurses (PHNs) in a school health program about their use of MC. Public health nurses participated in focus group interviews and completed weekly reflections. They perceived that MC (a) increased PHNs' flexibility although they were constrained by work rules, (b) increased peer and employer connectedness yet increased isolation, (c) and increased PHNs' status while creating a wider gap between PHNs and their clients. Public health nurses described their practice as being more efficient and client-focused with MC. Over time, PHNs grew more comfortable with the tool, developed a dependence on it, and learned to deal with technological problems. Although this new technology shows promise, there is a need for further research to examine its impact as a tool to promote public health nursing practice.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Coupling the N-CODES system with actual nurse decision-making.

Nurses must be involved in the development and testing of clinical decision support systems if systems that fit into the actual clinical decision-making process and the flow of practice are to be designed. This article discusses the first trial of N-CODES, the Nurse Decision Support System. This system is designed to assist nurses, particularly novices, to make clinical decisions. The adequacy of the theoretical framework and selected aspects of the knowledge base were examined. Twelve nurses participated. Results indicated that revision of the theoretical framework is necessary if it is to be a fair representation of nurse's decision-making. The sequencing of information seems appropriate but the process of developing the knowledge base must be made more transparent to nurse users. After modifications, the next trial will test actual clinical use.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The use of personal digital assistants at the point of care in an undergraduate nursing program.

This study examined the relationships between the use of personal digital assistants and self-efficacy and the preparation for medication administration among second-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing students in a medical-surgical clinical environment. By using a controlled experimental method, the study attempted to support claims about the educational benefits of personal digital assistants which have generally been reported in more descriptive and anecdotal formats. The sample consisted of 36 students, of which two groups had personal digital assistants and two groups served as a control. The control groups were provided with paper resources equivalent to the software provided by the personal digital assistants. Findings showed a significant increase in self-efficacy in the groups with personal digital assistants.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The N-CODES project moves to user testing.

For a technology to be implemented successfully, it must be thoroughly tested by the stakeholders who will use it in practice. This article reports on the user testing of the Nurse Computer Decision Support working prototype. Ten acute care nurses with varying levels of education and experience participated in the testing. The study's protocol consisted of a series of tasks requiring the participants to use the system while solving patient problems. Both quantitative and qualitative data on usability, ease of navigation, and nurse satisfaction were collected. The nurses ranked usability and ease of navigation highly. Nurses were excited about the system's clinical potential and felt that it would be useful to all practitioners regardless of experience. Testing the system in an actual clinical setting is the next step, but it is clear that the system has extraordinary potential to improve clinical decision making and patient outcomes.

Acute Disease↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Nursing administrators' experiences in managing PDA use for inpatient units.

The adoption of information technology in patient care has become a trend in healthcare organizations. The impact of this technology on end users has been widely studied, but little attention has been given to its influence from a management perspective. The purpose of this study was to explore nurse managers' perceived experiences in implementing a policy to adopt personal digital assistant technology. A descriptive, exploratory qualitative approach (one-on-one, in-depth interviews) was used to collect data from 16 nurse managers of inpatient units at a medical center in Taiwan. Interview data were analyzed according to Miles and Huberman's data reduction, data display, and conclusion verification process. The results revealed that nurse managers experienced the limitations of technology, training issues, doctors' obstructive influence, role conflict, and improvement of future personal digital assistant use. These results can be used to improve strategic organizational planning and in-service training programs to implement information systems.

Adult↗