Evaluation of hand held technology in nurse practitioner education

Evaluation of hand held technology in nurse practitioner education

Hand held technology is becoming an essential component of effective and efficient practice for providers in all clinical settings.  Hand held devices provide immediate access to important and updated clinical information which facilitates decision making, promotes patient safety and may reduce cost of care.  In 2008, The School of Nursing introduced hand held technology (iPod ©touch) to masters nurse practitioner (NP) students in their advanced health assessment course and fully integrated the use of this technology in subsequent clinical courses. A formal evaluation of the technology was undertaken in the Spring 2010 using a tool developed by masters faculty.

            All students completing their clinical course sequence in their NP specialty  were asked to complete an anonymous on line survey about their experience in using the iPod © in their clinical courses and their supervised clinical placements.   A total of 24 students representing the 9 specialty NP tracks completed the survey.  The average age of the respondents was 33.6 years old and all respondents had clinical experience as an RN (mean = 6.7 years).  More than half (54%) reported having no prior experience using hand held technology.  Sixty Five percent reported using their iPod © during their clinical coursework and in their supervised clinical rotations.  Of those utilizing their iPods ©,  100% indicated that they used it as resource for clinical decision making, followed by communication about patient issues (20%), to document patient care (20%) and access to patient information (10%).  Eighty six per cent believed that using the technology was effective in promoting patient safety, 66% accessed clinical guidelines to assist in treatment planning and 40% believed that cost of care was reduced.  Those not using the device cited their unfamiliarity/ lack of confidence as the primary obstacle to use.  Seventy five percent of students were satisfied with the technology in their educational program and 85% reported their intent to use the technology in their practice.