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Mobile Technology Speeds up Processes for Indiana U. Med School Students
7/31/2006
“The biggest feature is the fact that it uses flash memory,” she says. “When the battery g'es dead,” as happens with some frequency when a student forgets or isn’t able to recharge the PDA, “you don’t lose your data.” That was a problem with previous systems.
The first year with the new PDA program in place was difficult, as the two IT specialists struggled to find enough time to support the program. Over just a few months, they worked to develop training programs and to orient students to the new program. The second year was smoother. “Because of our bad experiences [the first year],” Hatfield says, “we decided to be very proactive, with training programs [and] documentation online – we were as prepared as possible before starting rotations.”
By then, half of the students had used the PDA system for a year, so support was much easier. Going into the third year, Hatfield says, student familiarity with handheld devices in general is helping make their job easier. “We’re seeing a higher percentage of students who are more tech-savvy,” she says.
Looking back on the PDA experience, Bangert offers this advice for others: Plan ahead to hire a support person before beginning a PDA program like this, since ample support hours will be required at the beginning. Also, he suggests, work to prepare students ahead of time, before launching the program.
Hatfield and Bangert also try to make the PDAs more valuable to students by showing them other uses, including other medical applications for PDAs. Bangert has also conducted short sessions to show students how to customize their PDAs, play videos, and listen to music on them, all in the name of increasing student interest in the devices.
At the end of this school year, Hatfield says, she found it satisfying when a few fourth-year students asked for help in setting up their PDAs with appropriate applications for their upcoming residencies. Clearly, they planned to continue using their systems. “It was just a handful, but I think it’s going to increase as we get the students more engaged in using it,” she says.
Linda L. Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif.
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