UCLA School of Nursing adds iPod Touches with medical applications to syllabus
By Elizabeth Case
Jan. 3, 2011 2:58 a.m.
At the end of every fall quarter, a ceremony is held to signify the transition of third-year nursing students into their clinical studies.
Students are usually given white lab coats for hospital use, but this year, in an effort to integrate technology into the curriculum, each was also given a new iPod Touch.
“Today’s nursing students have the technology to improve quality of care at the bedside,” said Courtney Lyder, dean of the UCLA School of Nursing.
“This is really preparing our students for 21st-century nursing.”
The iPod Touches came pre-equipped with three medical applications. The first, Nursing Central, is designed to help with diagnoses, procedures, diseases and medicine.
The other applications allow students to study for nursing board exams and to translate common questions and phrases into Spanish in for the benefit of some patients.
There is, however, some concern among faculty that students will focus more on their iPods than their patients. But Suzette Cardin, assistant dean of student of the School of Nursing, said that the instant access to information is a huge improvement over the procedure books clinical nursing students used to carry around.
“They will have the most recent technology available, so they can give the best care,” Cardin said.
Cardin said she hopes the iPods will draw more students to the UCLA nursing program, which has seen an upswing in the number of applications in recent years.
Similarly, Lyder said he hopes the devices speed up bedside treatment and allow students to concentrate on patients instead of worry about definitions and procedural specifications; however, he emphasized that the iPods are no substitute for knowledge and competence.
“Tech does not replace good nursing assessment,” he said.
Alina Wong, a third-year nursing student, said that while she is excited to have the technology in hand, students cannot rely on it too much.
“Even though we have an iPod Touch, it is really important that we rely on our own nursing skills,” she said.
The funding for the iPod Touches comes from the efforts of David Feinberg, chief executive officer of the UCLA Health System. And while students in the next two classes are already guaranteed iPods, all classes will have to return the technology at the end of their education.
Wong said she is unhappy she has to give the iPod back, but it does not lessen the appeal of being at the front of nursing technology.
“I’ve been hearing about hospital systems implementing (iPods), but I never thought we would get to be a part of it,” she said.
