Personal digital assistants (PDAs): Love 'em or leave 'em is no longer an option for nursing students and safe medication administration

It is estimated that 5 out of 100 medications administered are done so in error leading to approximately 7000 deaths per year[1]. Additionally, reports state there are 450,000 preventable “adverse drug events” (ADEs) occurring within hospital settings each year [2]. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) utilized by health providers at the point-of-care are a valuable information technology tool for preventing medication errors [2, 3] but less is known about their use in nursing education[4]. To determine if nursing students could effectively learn to use PDAs while learning to administer medications during the course of their first clinical experience, we engaged in a pilot program in which 179 PDAs were distributed to BSN students before clinical coursework (N-132 sophomore and N=47 second career students). Students received a PDA and a clinical pharmacological software program. A one-hour orientation was provided, followed by online references and face-to-face support as needed. We theorized that students with access to current clinical and drug information at the bedside will develop safe medication administration practices and utilize evidence-based practice resources more frequently if they were available during the initial process of learning. Ongoing evaluation includes: a) assessment of frequency of key tasks performed such as using PDA to look up drug information, use medical calculators and connect to web-based medical resources; b) rating student motivation to use the PDA by measuring students' perceived value of resources available for medication administration and patient care; and c) qualitative responses related to assistance with medication administration and patient care tasks [5].