With many of today's nursing schools either requiring or recommending the use of tablets, nursing students may find themselves eager to make the most out of their tablets both in the classroom and out.
There are hundreds of apps boasting to be the best note-taking aide or reference tool, but only a few truly make the cut. Each of these apps has a minimum overall rating of 4-stars in the iTunes store, has been recommended by nursing students and has received an update in either 2011 or 2012, ensuring the information contained in the app is the most up-to-date possible.
1. Micromedex
One of the most comprehensive drug information tools available, Micromedex is a free app with in-depth information on hundreds of drugs. Contraindications, toxicology information and black box warnings are all available at the touch of a button, online or offline.
Browsing toggles between drug name and drug class, and the built-in search engine covers over 4500 terms to provide you with thorough results. Micromedex has received 5-star reviews from nursing students, RNs and EMTs alike.
2. PDF Expert
It is increasingly common for nursing teachers to make information available via downloadable PDFs. PDF Expert allows nursing students to view and make notes on PDF handouts. By allowing highlighting, notating, drawing and annotating any PDF document, PDF Expert makes note-taking quick and easy. Calling up a relevant handout while in class or studying is simple, and any changes can be saved and viewed later using Preview or Adobe Acrobat on a normal computer.
3. Nursing Central
Required by some nursing schools, Nursing Central is specifically designed for nursing students. Nursing Central fully optimizes the abilities of the iPad, cross-referencing material and allowing students to search unknown terms simply by highlighting them in the text.
In addition to a medical dictionary, Nursing Central includes information on pharmacology, pathologies, labs and diagnostics and full access to Medline medical journals. Nursing Central also includes Grasp, a study system designed to help students prepare for exams.
4. Dropbox
Recommended by nursing students across the web, Dropbox is free tool for syncing documents between an iPad and any personal computer. By storing documents online, Dropbox makes it easy to keep track of handouts, charts and even papers from anywhere with an internet connection. The Dropbox app makes retrieving documents while on the go painless.
5. NCLEX-RN Review Lite
Designed to help nursing students study for the NCLEX-RN exam, NCLEX-RN Lite is a useful tool not only for the board exam but also classroom exams. NCLEX-RN Lite is broken down into nine study units, including pediatrics, pharmacology and nutrition. The reviews are posed in the form of sample questions pulled from a 500-question database for minimal repeats.
If a user gets a question wrong, they are given the option to review relevant material to help understand their error. At the end of each test is an overview showing the number of questions answered correctly and incorrectly as well as the amount of time spent on each question and in total on the test.
Fiona BraggAbout the Guest Author:
Fiona Bragg is a pediatric nurse and guest author at Best RN to BSN Programs, a site with guides to top-rated RN to BSN degree programs online.
