It's not just doctors demanding smartphones app and access anymore. A new survey by healthcare publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins finds that most nurses want smartphone access to the drug guides they've been carrying around in their pockets for years.
LWW surveyed 4,000 nurses and nursing students about its Nursing 2013 Drug Handbook, and found that 85 percent want the guide available electronically through their smartphones.
"Nurses have long relied on our pocket-sized guide to support clinical decisions, but today's nurse wants mobile access to the most current information possible," says Judy McCann, chief nursing officer with LWW's parent company, Wolters Kluwer Health. So it shouldn't be a surprise that that's just what LWW plans to do--the company will launch a mobile app version of its guide next month.
The move follows a growing trend. Data collected by Springer Publishing Company last fall showed rapid growth in nurses' use of smartphones for work, with almost 75 percent owning a smartphone or tablet, and about 53 percent downloading mobile versions of medical e-books.
And they may be getting a head start on new nurses, who are joining the workforce with more mobile expectations than ever, according to a January report by Mobiledia. The site reported that nursing schools across the country--like the Regis College School of Nursing in Weston, Mass.--are requiring students to use smartphones and/or tablets in the classroom, replacing traditional handbooks and guides.
LWW's poll backs that up, finding that 66 percent of nursing students are using a smartphone in school today.
But medical publishers shouldn't shut off the printing presses just yet. LWW found that while 85 percent of nurses wanted a mobile app version of drug guides, even more--89 percent--want to have both a mobile and a print version.
To learn more:
- read the LWW announcement
- check out iMedicalApps' commentary
- dig into Mobiledia's coverage