More often than not nurses are using smartphones in their daily work. According to data released by InCrowd, up to 88% of nurses are doing so, and the figure that is higher than recent reports indicating that 78% of medical residents owned a smartphone and 67% used it in clinical care. Bedside access to drug interactions and clinical data dominates nurse smartphone use with 73% looking up drug information on a mobile device. Some 72% used smartphone apps to look up various diseases and disorders.
Other time-saving uses of smartphones not related to apps — including staying in touch with colleagues in their hospital (69%) — typified the multifaceted role that the smartphone is playing in day to day patient care, making a nurse’s work a little easier. Nurses reported using their smartphones for fast access to patient care information across a wide range of daily nursing tactics, from receiving patient photos of a rash to setting a timer for meds administration.
However, while respondents also stressed that smartphones “enhance but don’t substitute” the need for a physician consult prior to administering care, 52% reported using their smartphone instead of asking a question of a nursing colleague. This was particularly the case if a medication, illness or symptom was unfamiliar.
“The hospital gets very busy and there isn’t always someone available to bounce ideas off of,” said one respondent.
52% reported using their smartphone instead of asking a question of a nursing colleague.Also interesting is the fact that nurses are getting smartphones whether employers are covering the cost or not. Some 87% of nurses in the follow up survey responded that their employer does not cover any of the costs related to their smartphone, 9% of were reimbursed for the cost of the monthly bill, 1% received coverage for the cost of the smartphone itself, but only 3% had the cost of both a smartphone and their monthly bill covered by their employer. Less than 1% reported their hospital prohibited nurses from using smartphones during their shift.
InCrowd’s survey involved some 241 nurses who answered these questions over a 2-hour window on May 30th.