Useful Apps for Nurse Practitioners
- Stanford Guide
- Electronic Preventative Services Selector
- UpToDate
- CDC Influenza
- VisualDx
In keeping up with technology, there are many apps being used today by medical professionals, including nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners play an important role in providing healthcare to patients and work alongside doctors in providing that care. Having access to credible health information greatly improves the nurse practitioner’s ability to provide safe, effective and high-quality care in a timely manner. Healthcare apps allow healthcare professionals to access data through their electronic devices. These apps are usually compatible with iPad, Android, iPhone/iPod touch, Windows, and Web. Here are five helpful apps for nurse practitioners that offer useful and evidence-based content nurse practitioners can use in their practice and while on the go.
1. Stanford Guide
Sanford Guide is a well-known and trusted reference on antimicrobial therapy and one that is used in more than 100 countries. Although similar to the textbook, the main difference is that the app is updated every month and includes all the latest research results. This app includes symptoms that are categorized by pathogens, infection, medication and prevention. It also includes interactive dosage calculators, tables and algorithms. The app offers customizable bookmarks and notes for easy reference as well as easy-to-use search engines. Nurse practitioners can also find links to other peer-reviewed medical journals.
2. Electronic Preventative Services Selector
The Electronic Preventative Services Selector is an app aimed at helping primary care clinicians identify clinical preventative services beneficial to their patients. Much of the information comes from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Nurse practitioners can use the search tool to find medical information and recommendations made by the U.S Preventative Services Task Force. NPs particularly like this app for a couple of reasons. One reason is its usefulness in counseling, screening and providing preventative healthcare, and the other is how it allows users to search for patient information by certain demographics like sex, age or risk factors. Users can also bookmark most-used areas and sign up for email alerts on recommendation updates.
3. UpToDate
This high-quality and practical app, which is supported by Wolters Kluwer Health, is a popular go-to app for most healthcare professionals. It includes not just links to full-text research articles but also access to medical calculators, practical guidelines and also an interactive drug checker. It also has a patient education tool that offers more than 1,500 printable brochures. NPs in need of continuing education credits can obtain them just by researching this on the app.
4. FluView
Every year the flu hits millions of people, making the CDC FluView app a widely used app by nurse practitioners, doctors and other medical professionals. The app includes up-to-date information on flu activity in the U.S. as well as access to the latest vaccination recommendations. It also offers videos by flu experts and antiviral treatment guidelines. Users can find valuable information on ways to diagnose and treat each type of influenza. Medical professionals can also order office CDC brochures and posters through the site to hand out to patients.
Related Resource: Top 30 Most Affordable MSN Nurse Practitioner Degrees Online
5. VisualDx
A big concern today is misdiagnosing patients, and the VisualDx app is designed to help nurse practitioners improve their patient communication and improve the accuracy of their diagnoses. The VisualDx app is designed to be used at the patient’s initial visit, so NPs can search the app by main complaints, medication, visual clues, symptoms and diagnosis. This app is even more helpful because of the high-resolution images showing different variations, such as skin type, severity, age, immune state and body location.
In the highly technological world we live in today, it is uncommon to see an NP or any medical professional that doesn’t have an iPad, tablet or some other kind of device in hand. According to NurseJournal.org, nurse practitioner apps are extremely helpful in keeping them aware of the latest trends in the nursing industry as well as up-to-date information on diseases and treatments.