Introduction
Nurses often experience challenges when they try to relate an assortment of knowledge in their brains to the clinical problems at hand. Because of the limitation of human brains, there is a high risk of errors in clinical practice and there is need for effective strategies that reduce chances of errors. Thus, this paper investigates the use of mobile computer devices, personal digital assistants [PDA], at the point of care by baccalaureate nursing clinical students in clinical practicum.
It is conventionally accepted that mobile computing is an important field for health care providers. Klainberg and Giordano (2002) note that, PDA allows doctors, nurses, and affiliate health care professionals to isolate and retrieve information effectively, thereby reducing clinical errors by improving quality of care and safety (p.21). Examples of PDA devices include ePocrates, Taber’s dictionary, and Davis’s Drug Guide. Scollin, Callahan, Mehta, and Garcia (2006) assert that ePocrates provides infectious disease and drug reference (p.213). In addition, PDA can be linked to the internet and get programs that can be synchronized with a computer and that are significant to contemporary nursing practice.
Nursing educators play a key role in this field and should be keen and responsive to novice trends and shifts in the health care environment. The relevance of informatics in nursing practice poses a challenge to nurse educators regarding integrating technology in current baccalaureate nursing curriculum (Simpson, 2001, p.83). Apparently, there is little literature on PDA usage in baccalaureate nursing curricula.
The use of PDA in nursing practice has certain positive implications on patient outcomes and organizational productivity. Various researchers support the usefulness of PDA in promoting patient safety via an informatics-based strategy to nursing education regarding the use of documentation in clinical encounters, in retrieval of safety related information at point-of-care, and improving procedural skills. The U.S. department of health and human services (2000) upholds that PDA could enhance nursing students’ ability and confidence in communicating accurate health facts to their patients. Consequently, this leads to increased patient compliance health status and recommendations per healthy people 2010 according to the US Department of Health and Human Services (2000, p.5). In addition, patients will acquire knowledge and self-efficacy that allows them to contribute in health care decision-making and management of their health.
The application of PDA in the medical education milieu saves the students the trouble of cramming various disease processes and treatments, nursing clinical skills and pharmacology to sustain safe and competent nursing care. Fisher and Koren (2007) argues that incorporating PDA in clinical education milieu can offers real time information on medications, health assessment, nursing procedures and skills, disease treatment, signs and symptoms, and disease processes (p.16).
Overview
The structure for this study is dependent on the premises that the nursing activity selected for this study, comprises a systematic form of the ability to apply conceptual and practical knowledge, in direct and indirect interaction with patient. This study examines the views on students’ experiences and thoughts concerning the use of PDA.
The study’s objective was to investigate the viewpoint of students experience using a Personal Digital Assistant [PDA] in medical practice in baccalaureate nursing clinical education. The focus group methodology was appropriate because it facilitates group answers (Morse, Field, & Field, 1995, p.96). To achieve this objective, the researchers employed a descriptive and exploratory design.
The participants were selected from third and fourth year nursing students from a baccalaureate-nursing program. 28 students constituted the four focus groups. The researchers focused mainly on the impact of PDA on nursing care in clinical practice.
A professional facilitator and nurse educator conducted focus groups for students of different disciplines who had and who had not utilized PDA technology. They used an open-ended interview to solicit feedbacks for an hour following a basic semi-structured interview guide. The interview was tape-recorded.
Qualitative evaluation of the focus group findings followed a protocol that includes, audio review of tapes, coding of transcriptions, investigators’ discussion regarding the key elements of students’ attitude on using PDA, determination of theoretical themes, and attaching verbal feedbacks to relevant thematic formulations.
The data collected from the four focused groups generated seven themes including safety of care, communication skills, professional image, clinical critical thinking, retaining information, and information resource. The focus groups’ participants generally upheld the usefulness of PDA in clinical setting. The PDAs allowed fast access to the necessary information at the point-of-care. The nursing students had mixed feelings regarding use of PDA in retaining information. They initially expressed fear of reliance on PDA and lack of retention after information retrieval. Regarding clinical critical thinking, the students argued that once they learn to use PDA, they make creative use of it in clinical situations, which improves their critical thinking and facilitate learning. Pertaining to professional image, students expressed conflicting experiences on the use of PDA. Many students felt that the technology had a positive effect on their image. Other students felt that it had negative effect on their image. Concerning PDAs effect on communication, students agreed upon its positive effects on their communication abilities and its effect in the quality of care with language database. In addition, PDAs provide students with access to information to facilitate safe and quality care.
Conclusion
The application of PDA technology has the following major benefits:
- The size of the device enables storage of nursing skills/learning experience by the student immediately after clinical session.
- Less time is needed for clinical evaluation using documentation of performance and growth using a PDA file.
- PDA mobility facilitates completion of tasks in conference rooms or other selected areas.
The incorporation of PDA technology in the nursing clinical practice education program was successful and elicited positive reactions from senior and junior students. The whole information in this study upholds the implications of the application of PDA’s as an easily available tool at the point-of-care in numerous facilities.
The use of PDA in nursing practice is increasing, such that the devices are becoming useful in the health care milieu because it offers a compendium of disease information, nursing protocols and treatment, and drugs.
The PALM PDA is a useful and available tool for nursing students at the point-of-care during a clinical performance. The PDA allows the nursing student to access a wide range of information pertaining to the task in question, to facilitate application of safe therapeutic care to various clinical conditions.
The PDA can support numerous references resources that are easily available including patient record, maintaining physician count, drugs guide and clinical dictionaries. In addition, it is linkable to internet to enable sending and receiving of mail, searching medical websites, and providing patient tailored programs at some hospitals important to practice as a health care practitioner.
Finally, this study is not generalizable because it utilised a convenient sample that suited the purpose of the study, although themes that arose from the study are applicable to other settings. The use of qualitative focus group offers insight into the students’ attitude on the use of PDA technology in clinical practicum.
Reference list
Fisher, L., & Koren, A. (2007). Palm perspectives: the use of personal digital assistants in nursing clinical education. A qualitative study. Journal of Nursing Informatics, 11(2), 14-19.
Klainberg, M., & Giordano, N. (2002). Write In the Palm of My Hand: The Use of Personal Digital Assistants for Nurse Practitioner Practice. Clinical Excellence of Nurse Practitioners, 5(5), 20-29.
Morse, J. M., Field, P. A., & Field, P. A. (1995) Qualitative Research Methods for Health Professionals. 2 ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Scollin, P., Callahan, J., Mehta, A., & Garcia, E. (2006). The PDA as a reference tool: The libraries role in enhancing nursing education. Computers, Informatics, Nursing Journal, 24(4), 208-216.
Simpson, R. L. (2001). Mapping an IT career: The future of nursing. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 25(2), 80-85.
U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000). Healthy People 2010: conference edition. Washington D.C.