Free Nursing Review Apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

It will be November in a few days and with that, we'd like to remind everybody that the December 2011 Nursing Board Exam is just around the corner. Meaning, those who will be taking the nurse licensure examination should have streamlined their review schedules by now so that more nursing topics will be covered (and mastered) in the soonest possible time.

However, we do understand that after months of endless hours of reading nursing textbooks and attending review classes, it's hard to keep motivation levels high. Yeah, you're tired of all the studying. And sometimes, the simple act of opening your nursing review materials and textbooks induces boredom and drowsiness.

But you know what? You can do something about it. A minor tweak in your study routine will, in fact, help keep your motivation levels high and bring back the zest in your nursing review.

Remember the article we did on free nursing apps for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch? Well, we found more nursing applications. But this time, the nursing apps will be more beneficial to nursing students and those who are reviewing for the nursing board exam. We feel that the use of interactive nursing review apps will help keep you right on track in your review even during those times when you just don't feel like opening your textbooks or those thick compilations given by nursing review centers. The interactive approach to learning will help you understand difficult concepts and retain knowledge better.

The free nursing review apps featured in this update are developed by Lippincot Williams & Wilkins, a company that's quite popular for their medical softwares and publications. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins have developed comprehensive review books and programs for nurses and student nurses. Below are the free medical nursing review apps that will be useful for those who are reviewing for the December 2011 Nurse Licensure Examination.

Porth's Essentials of Pathophysiology Q&A - The exam-style practice questions in this app will prepare you for pathophysiology questions that might come up during the nursing board exam. Questions come with a rationale to help explain answers. There are also tools within the app to help you customize your review.

Smeltzer's Medical Surgical Nursing Q&A - The 1400+ practice questions covering 73 different content areas will help you master medical surgical nursing. If you finish answering all the practice tests and read the rationale for each question, you'll surely breeze through test items on medical surgical nursing during the nursing boards. 

Taylor's Fundamentals of Nursing Q&A - This nursing application for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch is actually a companion to the Fundamentals of Nursing textbook written by Carol R. Taylor. Still, even if you don't own the textbook, you can still use the app and all its 922 questions on nursing fundamentals to increase your chances of passing the December 2011 Nursing Board Exam. 

Jensen's Nursing Health Assessment Q&A - What's great about this nursing review app is it lets you create personalized practice tests from 522 questions on nursing health assessment. The Jensen's Nursing Health Assessment Q&A also allows you to track your overall performance, bookmark difficult items, and even switch to reference mode for quick review sessions.

To download the free nursing review apps by Lippincot Williams & Wilkins on your iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch, go to the App Store and search for specific application you want to install. When the app shows up, tap install. You can also download the nursing apps through the iTunes application on your laptop or desktop.

While we are recommending the free nursing review apps listed above, remember that these are just alternative study methods. The nursing review apps are meant to supplement what you have studied in nursing school, read in your nursing textbooks, and discussed during your nursing review classes. Ergo, it would still be best that after the welcome break, you go right back to your nursing textbooks and other review materials for a more comprehensive review of nursing theories and concepts.

The December 2011 Nursing Board Exam is scheduled on December 18 & 19, 2011. For nursing board exam updates and exam review tips, visit Pinoy R.N. regularly.

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Nursing Resources at the iTunes U

Let's face it, studying can be a drag sometimes.  There are days when we feel we can't read another page of those textbooks and compilations or can't listen to that not-so-lively lecturer who has a very monotonous voice for another minute.

People we complain to about how tedious nursing review can be might tell us to just drop everything and have a break or take some time off from those nursing theories and concepts. It's a pretty sensible advice if time is in our hands.

But sadly, time isn't always in our hands.  There's that nursing test one has to ace in order to be promoted to senior year, the case study one has to research on, or that disease process that needed mastering because it might come up during the time-pressured foreign nursing exam.

Fortunately, we now live in modern times and thanks to technology, there are other ways to learn nursing concepts and principles aside from the traditional textbook and classroom approach.  Technology and the internet has reinvented the ways we learn new things so we don't have to stay strapped to our desks for days on end or be limited to the classroom setting.

For instance, there's this thing called iTunes U, a service in the ubiquitous iTunes Store designed to create, manage, and distribute educational audio and video content at no cost to the person uploading or downloading it. With this free service, Filipino nursing students and registered nurses can access lectures by nursing professors from the United States.

One valuable nursing resource at iTunes U is the series of lectures by Professor Chris Henshaw of the Seattle Pacific University Health and Sciences Department on Basic Nursing Theories .  She covered basic nursing concepts and nursing assessment.  We, at Pinoy R.N.,  particularly enjoyed her lectures on CVA and Diabetes.

Another nursing resource is the Basic Nursing Skills lectures by the Birmingham City University Faculty of Health.  If you need to reinforce previous learnings on how to administer intramuscular and subcutaneous injections, you'll love these set of lectures.

iTunes U has been around since May 2007 and right now, there are hundreds of thousands of educational files available for download.  There are over 200 nursing lectures in the iTunes University and a good number of them are produced by internationally-recognized nursing academic institutions.

iTunes University transfers a wealth of nursing knowledge to nurses and student nurses across the globe.  So, when studying or learning nursing material, remember that you don't have to be strapped to your desk or glued to your textbooks.  With the vast nursing resources available at iTunes U, you can study for your nursing exams or read on your coursework anytime and anywhere.

To get started on iTunes U, download and install iTunes on your computer. After which, create an iTunes Store account. iTunes U and other resources are accessible through the Apple iTunes Store.

Podcasts for Nurses and Student Nurses

A number of months ago, Pinoy R.N. published the article, 10 Free Nursing Apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. We recommended iOS-based applications like Medscape, Epocrates RX, Black Bag, Eponyms (for students), WebMD Mobile, Skyscape Medical Resources and Medical Encyclopedia so that you can access a wealth of medical information while on the go.

Those who have tried the iPhone and iPod Touch applications we recommended can vouch for the usefulness of the apps listed especially during clinicals. But Pinoy R.N. and Ward Class are going to take things a notch higher by rounding up the best nursing podcasts available.

Nursing podcasts, already popular in the U.S., are new learning tools designed to reinforce what nurses already know. It is also  useful in augmenting textbook and classroom learnings by offering great and fun ways to study for nursing exams and review on different nursing concepts and procedures.

With the help of your mobile devices such as the iPhone, iPod Touch, Zunes, Android phones, or any other MP3 device, nurses can download podcasts produced by nursing professionals and/or medical institutions and listen to them briefly at work, during study period, during a long commute, or when you're bored at home.

We searched the world wide web for the most useful ones available and here are some of the better produced nursing podcasts so far:

The Nursing Show. Hosted by medical educator Jamie Davies, this podcast has over a hundred episodes and offers timely updates on nursing news and a wealth of tips and information for nurses and student nurses. Click here for The Nursing Show's podcast.

Geriatric Nursing. Produced by the Darthmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, this podcast provides a series of lectures for nurses and student nurses interested in Geriatric Nursing. You can subscribe to the Geriatric Nursing podcast here.

Mayo Clinic - All Audio Podcast. The Mayo Clinic All Audio Podcast provides audio lectures on men's health, women's health, children's health, cancer updates as well as segments of Medical Edge Radio. Get the Mayo Clinic All Audio Podcast  here.

Johns Hopkins PodMed. The Johns Hopkins PodMed is a weekly health news podcast providing lively discussions on the latest news on health and medicine. Subscribe to Johns Hopkins PodMEd here.

Insights in Nursing. Insights in Nursing is a podcast that lets you listen to a panel of nurse leaders while they discuss nursing issues and other issues related to health care. Currently on its 17th episode, Insights in Nursing provides weekly updates to RNs, LPNs, student nurses, and even nursing educators. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Nursing podcasts are great ways of enhancing nursing education as we move towards global competitiveness. 

If you already subscribe to nursing podcasts providing well-produced and informative series of lectures and insights, drop us a line (or link) in the comments section and we'll be happy to include your picks in our list.

Health Informatics Seminar

Heads up, nurses! If you missed last month's Seminar on Health Informatics, here's your chance. 

The University of the Philippines Manila, National Telehealth Center in partnership with the International Open Source Network ASEAN +3 will again be conducting a Seminar on Health Informatic on May 21, 2010.

The venue for the seminar is at the College of Dentistry Auditorium, University of the Philippines Manila Pedro Gil St. Cor. Taft Avenue, Manila.

For details on the seminar, check out the embedded information sheet below:

Seminar on Health Informatics - www.PinoyRN.net

Sent in by Noel A. Bañez, R.N. Thanks!

10 Free Nursing Apps for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

The general direction of nursing in the Philippines is global competitiveness.  And to be called globally competitive, the Filipino nurse must keep abreast with the current trends in the practice of nursing, especially with the latest updates in Nursing Informatics. 

While we have become very familiar with reliable nursing practices such as pen-and-paper recording of patient data, we have to be progressive and utilize the current trends in information technology.  After all, the application of the current trends in information technology in the practice of nursing will help us deliver efficient, quality, and more timely patient care. 

Since the daily workload of a nurse involves the generation, management, and processing of patient data,  the use of wireless devices such as Pocket PCs, PDAs,  iPhones, and even the iPod Touch have become commonplace.  In fact, many developers have released applications designed to help nurses improve efficiency on the job and reduce errors in the clinical setting.

The authors of Pinoy R.N. and Ward Class have tried a number of Free iPod Touch and iPhone applications for nurses. Here are some of the more useful ones:

• Medscape.  A very useful application  from WebMD,  Medscape’s best features include the drug reference, drug interaction checker, and specialty-specific  news and updates.    It is very easy to use and lets users save articles and search results for future reference.
•  Black Bag.  A free  medical resource for healthcare professionals, Black Bag provides access to news feeds, journal summaries, conference coverage, podcasts, and newscasts on categories ranging from allergy to nursing to women’s health.  It is even customizable for an enhanced user experience.
• Epocrates RX.  Currently on Version 3.1, Epocrates Rx is a free mobile  drug reference that includes drug information, formulary, pill identifiers, drug interaction checker, medical calculators, clinical updates, and research articles.
• Eponyms (for students).  The free version of Eponyms provides a brief description of more than 1700 medical eponyms.  It also includes a search feature that allows users to search eponyms by category.  Be sure to try “learn” mode in the options section of Eponyms (for students), it’s fun.
• ABG. The ABG for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a free medical calculator that allows users to analyse arterial blood gas, calculate the FiO2 to achieve a desired PO2, compute IV drip rate and other hemodynamic calculations.
• MedCalc. MedCalc is a free medical calculator that provides a large selection of relevant medical formulas.  The application supports US and SI units and features a customizable list of favorites and recently used medical formulas.  Users also have the option to search for medical formulas by name or keywords.
• Medical Encyclopedia. University of Maryland Medical Center’s Medical Encyclopedia app for the iPhone and iPod Touch provides users with relevant  information on diseases, injuries, symptoms, different types of surgery, poisons, and laboratory tests.  The user interface is also clean and easy to navigate.
• WebMD Mobile. WebMD mobile provides the nurse trusted medical information on demand. Information on symptoms, treatment, and even first aid is readily available.
• Skeletal System (Head and Neck).  Developed by 3D4Medical.com, this medical application for the iPhone and iPod Touch has great graphics and illustrations.  It also allows users to change the background color and features a smooth zoom in/zoom out function.
• Skyscape Medical Resources.  The Skyscape Medical Resources is a useful app for nurses and nursing students alike.  The medical application provides useful information on OTC  and prescription medications.  Also very organized and very easy to use.

In addition to the 10 apps mentioned above, it is also recommended that nurses and student nurses download Stanza for the iPhone/iPod Touch and Stanza Desktop.  Stanza Desktop supports most file formats including PDF  and it enables users to share e-books and PDF files, like the review notes found in the Pinoy R.N. downloads section, to the iPhone or iPod Touch.  Once shared, users will be able to access their PDF files via the Stanza app on the iPhone or iPod Touch anytime.  Yes, even during clinicals. 

However, it should be noted that while we consider  these nifty applications as technological wonders, there is no substitute to good critical thinking and a keen clinical eye.  Thus, nurses must exercise professional  judgment and critical thinking, and take into consideration general nursing knowledge when using the above-mentioned medical applications.

Click on the image to ENLARGE the screenshot.