# Please recommend a PDA for a nurse. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-pda-for-a-nurse/403841 "2007-05-12T15:26:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Licentious\_Ectomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5e9695/32.png) [@Licentious\_Ectomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Licentious_Ectomorph)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-pda-for-a-nurse/403841/1 "2007-05-12T15:26:42Z")
So I’m graduating from nursing school this Tuesday, and have a job lined up at a hospital starting next month. My SO has offered to get me a PDA as a graduation present, as I’ve seen nurses use them to look up drug info, etc. Having that information at my fingertips would be invaluable. What kind should I get? Are there any that come with drug guides programmed in, or would I have to download one off the net? Any other useful programs like assessment or treatment guides I can get? Thanks. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-pda-for-a-nurse/403841/2 "2007-05-12T17:57:55Z")
There’s a lot of medical software out there - a local medical school bookstore might be a good place to look. I use Tarascon’s Pharmacopoeia (IANAN, but work in a hospital as a research assistant), and I see the company produces [a number of other products for PDA](http://www.usbmis.com/prod/products.php), some of which are nurse-specific. I bought myself the Palm T|X ([Palm-brand product line here](http://www.palm.com/us/products/handhelds/)) but I know many other manufacturers make PDAs that use the Palm software. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2007, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-recommend-a-pda-for-a-nurse/403841/3 "2007-05-12T19:34:24Z")
First off: Do you want one that’s also a phone? I ask because the ones that _aren’t_ phones are harder to find, and cost almost as much. They also aren’t much smaller (really they just lack the antenna,) so even if you have no need for a PDA-phone, don’t rule one out because it IS a phone. Just don’t use the phone function. That being said, I had the Samsung i-730 (a PDA phone) and I love it. It has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, and also a touchscreen. The full keyboard is VITAL if you feel you’ll be doing a lot of messaging/email/data entry with it. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, also essential items on ANY PDA. It doesn’t have a camera, though, which is the only drawback. A camera can sometimes be useful in the medical field for, say, taking a picture of a nasty wound and sending it to a doc so he can look at it before he even gets to the hospital, or is off at a conference or something. I would stay away from anything that runs the Palm OS. Windows Mobile is more common, and has a lot more software for it. Plus, if you use a Windows PC already, lots of things are going to be familiar. The current one is WM 6, but not all of them have 6 yet, but 5 is still really good. Some still just have 3, but if they are still being sold, then they will almost certainly be able to be upgraded to 5.