Whether you are in your first year of nursing school or you’re a five year veteran on the floor, finding the best nursing apps for students and nurses are sure to be a helpful guide along the way throughout your nursing career. Apps are the perfect companion for helping you through your studies, staying updated on industry news, identifying medications, creating patient care plans, managing your busy schedule and so much more! We’ve laid out one of the best nursing apps for students, medical news content, medication/drug identifiers, patient care plans and organization tools. Review the listings and determine the best ones for you to utilize in your daily life.
This article contains:
Apps for Nursing Students
Medical News Apps for Nurses
Medication Apps for Nurses
Patient Care Plan Apps
Organization and Planning Apps for RNs
Apps for Nursing Students
Medscape
Cost: Free
This app is the “go to” app for millions of nursing students. You will get immediate answers to clinical questions, the latest medical news, the ability to share and discuss patient cases and accessibility to courses from over 30 specialties. This app is a must download to ensure your schooling goes as smooth as possible.
Human Anatomy Atlas
Cost: $24.99
Although, there is a small fee with this app the benefits of it are astronomical. Think of this app as your own 3D personal tour guide of the human body. This app is not only a great visual tool but has animation capabilities with the most comprehensive anatomy definitions and explanations of pathologies. This app may just save your life during nursing school!
RN Crush! NCLEX Prep App
Cost: Free
Comparatively, it is never too soon to start preparing for NCLEX exam and this handy dandy app will help ensure your success. This is the ideal app to help you ace your exam. There are four game modes, advanced statistics, rationale and over 3,000 practice questions. You can take your studies on the go using this app, so there’s no need to pull all-nighters at the library. You’ll have your study guide with a click of a button.
Medical News Apps for Nurses
Medscape MedPulse App
Cost: Free
This app is guaranteed to keep you on the cutting edge of nursing specialty updates, medical news, clinical guidelines, and expert viewpoints. You have the ability to follow medical trends from Medscape’s Today on Twitter feed and a variety of blogs. This is the best app to keep you informed and knowledgeable on medical related topics.
NEJM This Week
Cost: Free (for a limited time)
Stay informed on the latest medical research from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). This app provides the latest information on health related news and medical research within the last seven days. You will be the most informed person on your floor when you have this app at hand!
Medication Apps for Nurses
Epocrates
Cost: Free
This app is the “bee’s knees” for medication related information. You won’t regret having this tool easily accessible on your mobile device. If you are looking to add more features, simply download Epocrates+ for $174.99/year. Don’t fret on the price, Epocrates has discounts for institutions and schools, so be sure to take advantage of these. The bonus of going with the premium options is that on top of the basic account, you get access to clinical practice guidelines, disease information, alternative medicine, ICD-10 and CPT codes, infectious disease treatments, labs, drug information, interaction check, pill ID, formulary and athenaText.
Pill Identifier and Drug List
Cost: Free
Let’s face it, the amount of medications circulating in the medical field are astronomical. Identifying a wide variety of brand and generic drugs can be challenging, but the solution is so very easy. This app is a great drug reference guide that provides details on over 60,000 drugs. You can identify a drug based on its color, shape and imprint. Get all the details you need on certain medications from the ease of your mobile device.
QxMD Read
Cost: Free
This app is your personal guide to the latest research in your field. Review millions of articles from PubMed at a click of a button. Medical research is changing and updating all the time – stay on the cutting edge and read what is important to you!
Patient Care Plan Apps
Nurse’s Pocket Guide
Cost: Free
This app is the perfect tagalong with over 440 medical conditions to help you make the appropriate nursing diagnoses. The app coaches you through creating effective care plans. You’ll quickly learn that this app is a nurse’s lifesaver!
Manual of Nursing Diagnosis
Cost: Free (upgrades inside the app)
This is app is essential to ensure a quick and effective patient diagnosis and treatment plan. This app shows how to use specific diagnoses to facilitate your questions and observations after the initial patient assessment. You cannot go wrong with using this app as your patient care plan guide.
Nursing Care Plans
Cost: $1.99
This app allows you to choose care plan templates based on a variety of patient ailments. Use this app as your guide to develop the best patient care plan.
Organization and Planning Apps for RNs
Todoist: To-Do List and Task Manager
Cost: Free
Let’s face the facts, nurses are busy people. You are managing so much throughout your day and keeping it all in your head is a bit overwhelming. The Todoist app is like having your own personal assistant. Add and remove tasks from your list at any time – you’ll never forget something important again! Peace of mind awaits…
HabitBull: Daily Goal Tracker
Cost: Free
Start building healthy habits in your life by using HabitBull as your guide. This app will ensure that you are staying on track and meeting your daily goals. Maybe you want to start working out before your nursing shift or eat three salads per week for lunch. You can view your progress by utilizing graphs to see your trends and continue an upward spiral towards success! Whatever habit you want to build you can achieve it with this app.
NurseGrid: Manage Your Schedule
Cost: Free
This app was developed by nurses to ease the stress of scheduling. NurseGrid allows you to manage your schedule with a touch of a button and communicate with other nurses in your unit. This is a seamless way to swap or give away shifts with your fellow nurses. Nursing Managers can utilize this app to organize the schedules of their entire unit and stay informed on any schedule changes. This app is an ideal way to communicate with your unit. Avoid all the back and forth texts and emails – finalize schedules in one place under one platform.
Conclusion
Nursing is a challenging profession and there is no reason to go at it alone. Technology is your friend, and utilizing the apps listed above will save your sanity and make life much easier. It is up to you to find the best nursing apps that work best for you. An app that one person loves might not be the best fit for you. Use trial and error to find the apps that will best fit your needs and wants. Your nursing career will thank you for it!
