A smarter pocket reference

In the age of smart phones, there’s an application for most everything and everyone. Nursing is no exception. Nurses, accustomed to their pocket references, have a slew of new electronic resources to choose from, including a nursing education application for the iPhone and iPod Touch created by critical care nurses at Shands at the University of Florida.

Designed especially for critical care nurses providing post-operative pediatric congenital cardiac care, two Shands nurses developed the app as a digital reference tool when treating children and infants after their heart surgeries. Users can also bookmark pages and make notes. One of the developers had field tested his own paperback pocket reference, and also on post-operative pediatric congenital cardiac care. He applied his experience to the digital content, and the application draws its evidence-based data from varied websites, journals, and textbooks. Though it’s not a free app ($9.99 at the Apple Store), proceeds benefit nursing education, research, and professional development at the hospital and its Center of Nursing Innovation.