PDAs in the Nursing Curriculum: Providing Data for Internal Funding

graduates 1 year after their graduation, we noted students expressing concern about the limited technological focus of our nursing curriculum. We agree that nursing must address technological advances in the curriculum. With support from our dean, the faculty of Auburn University School of Nursing examined current nursing literature, student needs, resources available, and trends in the healthcare environment in deciding to introduce strategies for using personal digital assistants (PDAs) into our curriculum. These hand-held devices have rapidly been adapted for use by healthcare professionals with PDAs especially providing the nurse with access to information at the point of care. The desirable professional behavior of seeking information for use at the patient’s bedside is modeled via the use of PDAs by faculty and nursing staff. PDAs have also been shown to be effective student learning resources, especially for reference materials.