PDA pilot: help is close at hand

When Lisa Russell, a registered nurse with the Timmins Family Health Team, makes a home visit to a senior citizen and isn't sure about a new drug her patient has been prescribed, help is close at hand.

Russell is one of several thousand frontline health-care workers in Ontario who are using personal digital assistants (PDAs) provided through a HealthForceOntario pilot program.

The PDAs are loaded with a variety of resources, including the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario's (RNAO) best practice guidelines and either the Lexi or Pepid nursing software suites containing a drug database, drug interactions generator, a medical dictionary, medical calculators and lab and diagnostic procedures.

The RNAO best practice guidelines focus on a wide range of issues such as promoting continence, preventing falls, managing pressure ulcers and caring for patients with asthma.

"When I learned about the pilot, I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to work with our community partners, the East End Family Health Team and the Timmins District Hospital," said Joy Galloway, executive director of the Timmins Family Health Team.

The three organizations submitted a joint application and received 17 PDAs - three for each family health team and 11 for the hospital. Most are hand-held devices, but the Timmins District Hospital opted for three tablets, which are more suitable for sharing.
"It's great because if you have blood work that has been done and you're questioning the results, or if you want to check medication dosages, you're able to look it up," said Russell.

The PDAs can also access McMaster Nursing Plus, a medical literature service from McMaster University's Health Information Research Unit. Russell signed up for regular email alerts notifying her of relevant articles about her specialty, geriatric care.

The project, the first provincial government initiative of its kind in Canada, "raises awareness that nurses are knowledge workers who need timely, reliable, evidence-based knowledge to apply to their practice," said Vanessa Burkoski, Ontario's Chief Nursing Officer.

"We targeted nurses in long-term care homes, rural and remote communities, correctional facilities and public health agencies who might not have easy access to evidence-based resources they could use at the bedside or in the community.

"All of the nursing leaders and stakeholders came together and agreed this was a wonderful idea. Everybody was onboard," said Burkoski.

A decision about whether or not to continue with the program will be made following an evaluation of the pilot.

Organizations in receipt of the 1,454 PDAs will be able to keep them after the year is up and load them with additional resources deemed relevant to nurses using them.

The investment for the pilot was $3 million.