Frustration with modern technology:

Anyone who knows me also knows that I like my gadgets, PDA,ipod touch latest mobile phone, laptops and notebooks, ipods … always go away with my acer aspire one laptop…. Etc.

Three months ago it was time to change my phone… and I couldn't wait to get the new Apple iphone…. I researched it… the pros and cons…. But fell in love with the phone…. The capacity to hold lots of information in the palm of your hand from music, games, legislation and the Internet….. Brilliant. So I made a decision not to continue with my paper based diary…. Because with previous PDA’s I have always maintained both…. Just in case. In my iphone I would enter an appointment, allow for an hour notification before it was due….. Great for me, because I would never be late for the appointments.

Well you have guessed it….. After three months of learning how to use the iphone and its applications…. Facebook…. Shazzam (a program that names the song on the radio if you missed the title…. Excellent), I even had an obstetric wheel on it…… it really is an excellent piece of technology…… however I had not mastered the complete backing up system….. I had my iphone in my bag… with a bottle of Pepsi and the lid was not tightly attached….. and managed to get some water damage to my phone……. Disaster! It was the smallest amount… as I realised within 5 mins what had happened……
For me this was disastrous…. The diary part was not synced to my outlook…. I have managed to save all the applications and music because that was saved to itunes…. But the diary and notes …. I think I have lost…. Never mind the contract with Telstra that still has to be paid….three months into the contract….. so there are huge financial implications as well……

I have managed to find a mobile phone repair place that is looking at my phone and I will not know until the end of the week whether it can be saved.

The lesson learned… apart from not putting drinks next to your phone…. Is to back up all information…. And I have bought a paper diary again…I have to say in all the years of using a paper diary i never lost it, and in three months I have lost an enormous amount of information in just minutes..... I will get another iphone if the old one is unrepairable…. As it is a fantastic piece of technology….. it was my poor use that contributed to the loss of the information….

Backup backup and backup……

Client Confidentiality: Is it time to use PDA's

A UK community midwife lost her diary that contained 350 names and details of all her clientele. As you are aware this could be catastrophic for some of these women. The hospital wrote to all the women apologising for the mishap and assured the women it was not their records however acknowledged how serious this incident was in terms of breaching client confidentiality. You might be asking is this easy to do? I can think of several high profile cases lately of leaked/lost information for example; what about the AFL footballers whose medical records were allegedly found in a public place, and politicians who have misplaced sensitive information/documents on the train. I am sure you will be able to think of many more examples.
We all acknowledge that confidentially is the corner stone of our Code of Ethics and we do our up most to protect patient/client confidentiality within the scope of our practice. No part of any patient/client records can be photocopied or taken home by nursing/midwifery staff. However community and independent midwives have a different set of rules, also in this category are Nurse Practitioners and Remote Area Nurses.


May be we need to embrace the technological age and we should be using PDA's (personal data assistants or organisers) - you can have it password protected and synchronised with your computer, personal and hospital. There are many different types and prices on the market, off course it means the hospital has to invest in the package deal for all computers/systems. The question is will they?

I know that Silver Chain Nurses use PDA's very effectively and to my knowledge have not had breaches with confidentiality and if you do misplace your organiser it is backed up to the main computer and password protected. I have also noticed more and more restaurants use them as well to improve communication and legibility for their staff.

I personally use a HP iPAQ 112 and find it brilliant, you can get all sorts of programs to upload, for example; due date and pregnancy progress; dictionaries, you can upload policies and have them at your finger tips etc. I also believe this is the way of the future, yes I know that there are very clever hackers out there but for the most part they are not interested in our health details, I hope this is not a naive view.

1. Let me know if your area uses a PDA?
2. What do you think about using a PDA?


http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1062554_midwife_loses_patient_details