Any pharm students with PDAs?

[no-see-um]

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What's a good PDA to get? Any suggestions/links? Do pharmacists use PDAs much?

 

[aubieRx]

I've never used a PDA but I do have a TI-89 calculator that has an address book and stuff in it.

I figure we will use our laptops more than we would a PDA but then again I don't know much about these things.

 

[Caverject]

You won't use a PDA until you get to your last year of school. (Rotations) I would hold out until then and use your computer.

 

[Jeddevil]

I use my PDA daily at school, to play videogames and read the local and national electronic newpapers in class. Money well spent. I love mine, Dell axim x50. Oh yeah, I have a bunch of drug programs on it I look at sometimes.

 

[ultracet]

we are given PDAs during our first year by the SoP. Some of the programs are free to us and some they request that we buy. The professor will ask questions during classes and expect students to have their PDAs and look up the information. They will also beam info to students and expect it to spread throughout the class and for it to be utilized. we have rotations our first and second year as well so it does come in handy on those.

pharmacists may not use PDAs much but they should because they are terribly handy and can hold any information that is needed. i think that perhaps a lot of pharmacists do not know they are available. i have programs on mine such as micromedex, lexi-comp (both have drugs, diagnostic, monitoring parameters and the lexi now has a "calculator" that calculates all of your dosages for you), clinical pharmacology, sanford (very very handy), and the medical letter (again terribly useful).

like some of the others have said... you will definitely use them more during the 4th year rotations. we used ours during a part of therapeutics called "real world cases" where it was like a roundtable discussion about a patient.

i personally prefer the palm platform though i realize that pocket pcs are the "thing". pocket pcs are a little slower (from what i've read) but most users don't notice it. i have found that on occasion my palm is a little slower than i would like it to be (even with an expansion card) and i believe that whenever i do make the switch it will drive me crazy.

it probably is a good idea to wait until at least the third year to make a purchase of a PDA unless you are really ambitious.

oh and... laptops.... wouldn't bother with one on rotations unless you had time to sit around and type stuff up.

 

[dgroulx]

I have a Palm Tungsten C with the little built in keyboard. You can learn to type really fast with your thumbs. One of our books for 3rd year is available for Palm. The textbook list says we can use the Palm version or buy the textbook.

At UF, we start full time rotations during the 2nd semester of our 3rd year. My rotations last year were only for 1 day per week. So, I didn't get a Palm until this summer.

 

[aubieRx]

wouldn't your eyes get tired very quickly reading a textbook on a palm pilot screen?

I know mine would. I much prefer reading printed pages over computer screen text (if it is a lot of material)

 

[dgroulx]

wouldn't your eyes get tired very quickly reading a textbook on a palm pilot screen?

I know mine would. I much prefer reading printed pages over computer screen text (if it is a lot of material)

The required text is "Drug Information Handbook". It's just for reference. I won't be reading chapters, just looking up info.