According to a recent survey conducted by Wolters Kluwer Health's Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), 71 percent of nurses are already using smartphones for their job. The survey included responses from 3,900 nurses and nursing students. About 66 percent of those nursing students surveyed said they use their smartphones for nursing school.
Overall, 85 percent of the nurses and nursing students said they want a smartphone app version of LWW's Nursing 2013 Drug Handbook. Some 87 percent of those surveyed said they would want a smartphone app version of the text as well as a print version.
This month LWW plans to launch its first mobile app version of the handbook. The new forthcoming app includes nearly 900 drug monographs addressing more than 3,000 generic and brand name drugs. The app also offers a dosage calculator, pill images, detailed monographs and weekly drug updates. The app will work on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices once it launches later this month.
Earlier this year the New York Times reported on the effects of the increased adoption of smartphones among students at nursing schools: “The most profound recent change is a move away from the profession’s dependence on committing vast amounts of information to memory. It is not that nurses need to know less, educators say, but that the amount of essential data has exploded,” the Times wrote.
In January Massachusetts General Hospital also announced plans to equip its nurses with iPhones thanks to a recent deal with Voalte. Voalte’s offering combines high-definition voice calls, critical care alarms and presence-based text features and is intended for use by staff in acute care hospitals in the US and Canada — especially nurses. The company has helped a number of healthcare facilities equip their nurses with smartphones, including, Cedars-Sinai, Nebraska Medical Center, Texas Children’s, Heartland Health, Huntington Hospital, and Sarasota Memorial.
Another prominent smartphone app for nurses, Your Nurse Is On, automates nurse scheduling by sending out alerts via text, phone, e-mail or any other electronic medium when there’s a shift to fill. The system, which launched in 2009, was created by registered nurse Matthew Browning.
Read more about the LWW survey in the press release below:
PRESS RELEASE: AMBLER, Pa., April 26, 2012 -- Nurses and future nurses are using smartphones at the bedside, and want immediate access to drug reference tools. A recent survey of nearly 4,000 nurses and nursing students found that more and more nurses are turning to mobile technology to help them provide efficient and effective care. Conducted by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), publisher of the top-selling Nursing 2013 Drug Handbook, the survey found that 85 percent of nurses and students want a smartphone app version of the drug guide. LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry.
"As the U.S. population ages and the demand for nursing care increases, nurses need easy access to drug information from a variety of sources," said Judy McCann, Chief Nursing Officer, Professional and Education, Wolters Kluwer Health. "Nurses have long relied on our pocket-sized guide to support clinical decisions, but today's nurse wants mobile access to the most current information possible."
LWW's poll of 3,900 nurses and nursing students found that:
71 percent of nursing professionals use a smartphone for their job
66 percent of students use a smartphone for nursing school
85 percent of respondents want a mobile app version of a drug guide, while 89 percent want access to both an app version and the traditional print version
"Today's nurses and future nurses need handheld content they can trust, so we are excited to launch a smartphone app of the industry's best selling and most trusted drug guide," said McCann.
In May, LWW is launching the first mobile app version of the Nursing 2013 Drug Handbook, the market's original and top-selling drug guide since its inception in 1980. The new smartphone app includes almost 900 drug monographs addressing more than 3,000 generic and brand name drugs. Users can search for drugs alphabetically, by pharmacologic class, and by therapeutic class. The full version of the app includes a dosage calculator, pill images, detailed monographs and weekly drug updates, all in an intuitive, easy-to-navigate program. The Nursing Drug Handbook app will be available for the iPhone, iPad and iTouch and Android devices in early May 2012.
To learn more about the Nursing Drug Handbook or purchase the book or app, visit http://www.lww.com, find the book on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NursingDrugHandbook or follow Nursing Drug Handbook on Twitter at @nursinghandbook.
About Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) is a leading international publisher of trusted content delivered in innovative ways to practitioners, professionals and students to learn new skills, stay current on their practice, and make important decisions to improve patient care and clinical outcomes.
LWW is part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information, business intelligence and point-of-care solutions for the healthcare industry. Wolters Kluwer Health is part of Wolters Kluwer, a market-leading global information services company with 2011 annual revenues of euro 3.4 billion ($4.7 billion).
SOURCE Wolters Kluwer Health
