December 7, 2002. CCNMTL has developed a Clinical Rotation Palm Database for Entry-to-Practice (ETP) students at Columbia School of Nursing (CSN). CSN is a leader in advanced nursing practice and infomatics. In keeping with their cutting-edge profile, CSN has been experimenting with using Palm Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) to collect observational data during patient interventions. Since mid-January of 2002 approximately 200 ETP students have employed this new application on their m500 handhelds. Students in the field now travel with a PDA that allows data entry at the point of care. The students then return and upload their data with HotSync technology to a database manager that generates reports for faculty for student assessment. This allows CSN students to draw relationships between cases and assess their work with their faculty advisors.

CSN is currently working with CCNMTL to develop the mobile software application further. In mid-January 2003, 10 graduate students in Geriatrics will be given m515 Palm PDAs with a more expansive Clinical Rotation Palm Database. Mike Soupios, Educational Technologist, CCNMTL, is currently working on a revised application for CSN that will include many more fields of entry and database resources for these students. According to Soupios, "one of the keys of the new program is the ability to create nursing plans to manage their patients, more closely mimicking their clinical experience."

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