The use of personal mobile devices is a rapidly growing trend in clinical practice and in nursing education. Recent years have seen an increase in the use of personal digital devices (PDDs) by healthcare professionals as well as by the general public. In addition to being small and easy to carry, these technologies combine communications and computing abilities, facilitating mobility as well as information retrieval at the point of care.

In this session you will explore the current state of research literature documenting nursing students’ use of PDDs in their clinical curriculum. You will examine topics such as effectiveness, information retrieval practices, and challenges to implementation. You will leave this session understanding why academic institutions and teaching professionals need to get on board with promoting students’ use of personal digital devices in their clinical education.

In this session, you will learn:

• How undergraduate nursing students are using PDDs in the clinical setting
• The effectiveness of using PDDs in the context of clinical learning
• The challenges of promoting nursing students’ use of PDDs in their clinical education
• The perceptions of students, preceptors, healthcare staff, faculty members, and patients regarding nursing student use of PPDs

Audience:
Intermediate project managers and academics.

Technology discussed in this session:
Smartphones, iPods, tablets, pocket PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs).