Students at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Nursing will be able to translate patient questions from English to Spanish, run diagnostic tests, and prepare for their all-important nursing board exam with help from the Apple iPod Touch.
One hundred and eighteen students were given an iPod Touch at a Dec. 13 ceremony signaling the students’ transition from preclinical studies to clinical health sciences. The students were given white coats, per tradition, but this year, iPods were placed in the pocket of each coat, according to a UCLA release.
First-year master’s entry clinical nursing students and third-year undergraduates received iPod Touches, according to the university.
The popular device’s media player function has grabbed attention in all corners of higher education, with nursing and medical schools near the forefront of using the iPod Touch, which can access Wi-Fi networks.
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Ohio State medical school officials gave students iPods last year so they could study high-quality images of organs and body parts in the palms of their hands and see images from several angles.
Ohio State medical students also used the iPod to take short review quizzes for helpful reminders and access videos documenting the many steps of a surgery or procedure.
In July 2009, officials at the University of Michigan Medical School unveiled the “Dr. iPod” program, which lets students watch and review lectures at any time.
And medical students at Temple University listen to heart murmurs using the iPod after studies showed that repetition is the key to honing stethoscope skills and diagnosing heart conditions.
In 90-minute sessions, students listen to five kinds of heart murmurs up to 400 times each using the iPod, according to the university’s web site.
Temple University officials said training students to identify potentially life-threatening heart conditions by listening to abnormal heart beats would save money on pricey tests designed to classify which treatment would cure a murmur.
UCLA’s iPod Touches come with three applications designed for nursing students hoping to excel in the classroom and in the hospital, where they get hands-on professional experience.
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An app called “Medical Spanish” is designed to help student nurses communicate better with Spanish-speaking patients. The program—stocked with more than 3,000 phrases—translates the students’ English questions into Spanish, making it a handy tool in Southern California, where about half the population is Hispanic, according to UCLA.
The students also will have access to “Nursing Central,” an iPod Touch app that has a constantly-updating database of about 5,000 drugs and which conditions they were meant to treat. The app has a range of lab and diagnostic tests and offers access to definitions for 60,000 medical terms.
Perhaps most important to a nursing student’s academic success, UCLA’s iPod Touches come with an application called “NCLEX Review,” designed to help students study for a board examination they must pass before they can become a registered nurse.
Courtney Lyder, dean of the UCLA nursing school, said the inclusion of iPod Touches in the school’s curriculum wouldn’t mean the elimination of traditional nursing practices, but rather a more efficient way to sift through massive databases of information available to medical professionals.
“Taking care of patients is a tremendous responsibility,” he said in a statement. “While we still encourage the traditional methods of diagnosis, there is an overwhelming amount of medical information available. Providing each student with new technology for use at the bedside can only improve patient safety and the delivery of care. … Anything that improves health care ultimately helps patients.”
The iPod Touch’s applications, Lyder said, could help nursing students put patients at ease if they’re concerned about drug interaction. One quick search on the iPod to “double check” a drug prescription, and the student and patient can see on screen that there shouldn’t be any ill effects.
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