10 iPhone Apps Every Nurse Must Have

A Guest Post from Melissa Tamura

The ever changing and fast paced Health Care industry is a confusing place to work. New treatments, new medications and new procedures make keeping track of it all a tall order. Many apps available for the popular iPhone from Apple offer reference materials and diagnostic tools for making vital decisions on the fly. Here are ten essential apps for your iPhone that will make life a bit easier for nurses at any hospital.

Epocrates Essentials
One of the most popular programs available to nurses, Epocrates Essentials is the Swiss Army Knife of medical apps. Offering a comprehensive drug guide for a wide range of medications, it includes a visual guide to pills, gives lab test references, helps diagnose symptoms, and features thorough databases for infectious diseases of all kinds.

Skyscape RxDrugs
You can never have enough reference material when it comes to drugs and medications. RxDrugs features usage guidelines for thousands of prescriptions, both generic and brand name. You’ll receive updates on changes to drug information for a year and three months of phone support.

Drug Infusion
Nurses can use this handy, lightweight drug infusion guide to store records of standardized drug concentrations. The weight and drug dosage of any patient can be entered and the infusion rate for that patient can be quickly determined. It crunches the numbers for you when you’re pressed for time.

Nursing Central
The subscription-based Nursing Central features a number of helpful tools including a full medical dictionary, drug guides, access to medical journals and Davisís Comprehensive Handbook of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests. While not free, it’s well worth the investment.

Medscape
This one is a comprehensive, full-featured medical reference application that delivers over data including images and video on almost every conceivable condition and disease. And the price is right, because it’s one of the few apps of it’s type that’s completely free. In addition to drug and disease information, you get the latest breaking news concerning research and new discoveries in the medical field.

Pedi STAT
Everyone knows children can be some of the trickiest patients you’ll come across. Pedi STAT gives you accurate and appropriate information for children of any weight or age for quick and easy reference on everything from allergic reactions to normal vital signs.

Psych Drugs
Yet another useful, free app. Psych Drugs gives you a quick and easy reference for all the psychiatric drugs you’ll run across in your daily routine. From anti-anxiety drugs to mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics, Psych Drugs gives you all the information you need, accessed through an intuitive interface.

MedCalc
This free medical calculator offers access to a myriad of medical classifications, scores and formulas. It allows you to calculate everything from Ideal Body Weight to infused dosages in a snap. It’s the perfect iPhone addition for nurses and physicians alike.

A.D.A.M. Symptom Navigator
Easily one of the best free apps available to iPod Touch and iPhone users, the Symptom Navigator from A.D.A.M does exactly what it says. Giving clear and easy to use tools to quickly and accurately diagnose conditions and afflictions, it’s a must for anyone who deals directly with patients.

Informed RN Pocket Guide
Here’s one last reference guide for you long-suffering nurses. The Informed RN Pocket Guide offers thorough and comprehensive information for nurses in all areas of medicine imaginable. It also features tools for quick and easy calculations and the ability to write and save personal notes for future reference.

Those are just some of the many helpful and versatile applications available for the iPhone that nurses and others in medicine may find useful. With over 185,000 third-party applications currently available from the Apple App Store and iTunes, there are many more out there that can make any nurse or Medical Professional more versatile and productive in a challenging environment. For now, the ten applications listed above should tide you over while you sift through the available options for more handy programs to simplify your job.

Melissa Tamura writes about online degrees for the Zen College Life blog.