7 Apps to Help Your Nursing Career
By Moira K. McGhee, Contributor
A good memory is essential in a nursing career, but with the numerous nursing apps available, nurses also have valuable health care knowledge right at their fingertips. You’ll find apps for every nursing specialty that help you jump-start your nursing career. From quickly accessing medical information to expediting communication among colleagues, consider one of these seven apps to give your career in nursing a boost.
7 Apps for Your Career in Nursing
Starting a career as a nurse means lots of medical information to learn and remember. Modern nursing apps make it easy to access vital information quickly, which can give you a valuable jump-start.
“As nurses, we used to carry 80 percent of what we needed in our brain,” says Catherine Burger, BSN, MSOL, RN, NEA-BC, at RegisteredNursing.org. “With direct access to technology, we now only carry 20 percent of the knowledge we need to perform our jobs.”
“Having quick access to information is vital to a nurse,” Burger continues. “New nurses should first consult with the Clinical Education department for guidance on which apps are approved and encouraged in their facility. Organizations are slowly accepting the fact that nurses will use their phones to access information about patient care many times each day. Apps should also be appropriate to your line of nursing specialty.”
Burger’s top three recommended picks include:
1. The CDC Vaccine Schedules app, especially for nurses in a pediatric clinic. Nurses can access all CDC recommended immunization schedules, which show child, adolescent and adult vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
2. Lippincott Nursing Advisor to aid with procedures in many nursing career areas. This app offers a single source for access to the latest evidence-based information needed at the point of care to help reduce the opportunity for errors.
3. Pocket Lab Values, because it’s a great quick reference tool for common labs, with reference values and the correlating clinical conditions. Information is easily accessible at the point-of-care and available for iOS and Android devices.
Download the free NurseJobs app. This app gives nurses who are on-the-go the ability to stay connected with the latest career opportunities.
Other top nursing career apps
Whether you’re a novice nurse just staring a nursing career or an experienced nurse embracing the latest technology that helps improve efficiency, there are tons of apps for every specialty. These four apps offer quick access to essential information that benefits you throughout your career as a nurse.
4. Medscape App is one of the top free apps and allows you to visually identify drugs, quickly access medication and dosage information, find vital patient care information and access other useful medical content, including continuing education sources and up-to-date news for your nursing specialty.
5. Epocrates is a one-stop resource with a comprehensive database of pharmaceuticals, including potential adverse reactions, diseases and medical news. This free app also gives you the ability to calculate key formulas and is available for iOS and Android devices.
6. Medscape CME & Education app is ideal for any nurse looking to continue their medical education and professional development. This app allows you to stay current on the latest in your specialty, earn CME/CE credit, track the credit and certificates you’ve earned, view patient simulations and meet various educational and professional needs.
7. Nursing Central™ comes with a hefty price tag, but many nurses swear it’s worth the premium price. This all-in-one clinical resource is ideal for a career in nursing, with comprehensive disease, drug and nursing exam information, plus five fully integrated references and tools that make finding answers quick and easy. This product is available on a wide array of platforms, so you can access the information you need online or on the go.
Donna Matthezing, RN, with Compassionate Care In the Air, reminds new nurses to also embrace the human side of their nursing career. After 29 years, she says the best advice she can give new RNs is to take a position on a unit or an area, because it’s the most important jump-start.
“Every single patient you get to interact with and be part of their health and wellness is an opportunity for learning,” says Matthezing. “... When we come out of school, we’ve learned a lot of processes and procedures and disease pathologies; however, being with patients, caring for them and their families, gives you the humanistic side of nursing."
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