Need some general nursing info, medical translations, or professional development tips in the medical field? We’ve got you covered with the best five nursing apps. We traveled from app store to app store and hung ten surfing the web to bring you these hidden gems that are must-haves for nurses and nursing students. It doesn’t matter if you’re a nursing student, a new nurse, or a veteran nurse, there’s always new information coming out. With these apps, they’ll provide you with all the tools you need to help you keep your skills sharp… just like our surfing abilities!
1. Human Anatomy Atlas
The Human Anatomy Atlas, by Visible Body, is the best-selling, most anatomically accurate 3D atlas of the human body! This app shows over 5,000 structures of the male and female bodies, including the structure name, Latin name, anatomical grouping, definitions, and descriptions of common injuries, diseases, and pathologies.
Image courtesy of the App Store
This app is obviously great for nursing students needing to learn all the anatomy of the body, but Human Anatomy Atlas offers nurses far more than just an overview of body anatomy, like being able to create your own 3D presentation, which makes for a great patient education tool. The following video tutorial gives a fantastic example of the app capabilities.
| Pros | Cons |
| Vibrant 3D pictures of body structures | Cannot export a drawing |
| Create 3D presentation | Only one color and thickness for drawings |
| Ability to draw on body and ligaments | Not all features/body structures unlocked (in-app purchases) |
| In-depth, concise information about specific body parts | |
| Audio (and written) definitions | |
| Export picture |
2. Epocrates
(iOS, Android: Free, Epocrates Plus for $174.99/year)
In the United States, 1 out of 2 physicians use the Epocrates point of care medical app to make sure their patients get the best care. Over one million healthcare providers use the awarded app to support their clinical decisions. Insane! There’s a free version available with limited, but worthy features. If you really want the full experience, you can get Epocrates Plus at a cost of $174.99 per year.
The drug information tool, which is included in the free version, provides adult and pediatric dosing information, black box warnings, adverse reaction information, and drug interaction information. You can check for harmful drug interactions, up to 30 different brand names, generic, or over-the-counter drugs. Beyond the drug interaction tool, the nursing app identifies pills based on imprint codes or physical characteristics. With each search you do, you’ll get a result that includes images. Tap the pic and it’ll blow up on your screen.
Image courtesy of the App Store
Another awesome feature available on the free version is athenaText. This feature enables healthcare professionals to collaborate conveniently through HIPAA compliant text messaging.
The plus version unlocks many more features including clinical guidelines, ICD-10 code search, alternative medicine information, and disease information. The plus version also has information regarding infectious disease treatments and lab and diagnostic information. While you can buy the plus version individually, for medical schools or institutions that want all of their healthcare providers on the premium clinical plan, there are discounted group rates! So definitely pounce on the discount opportunity!
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| Pros | Cons |
| Ease of use, quick navigation | Pricing |
| HIPAA-compliant text messaging | Does not have information about many rare diseases as other apps |
| Group/institution discount pricing | |
| Information about alternative medicine, herbal supplements |
3. Nursing Central
(iOS: Free download, subscription required)
The Nursing Central app, crafted by Unbound Medicine, was created to be a premiere source for nurses and nursing students to find information regarding diseases, drugs, tests and procedures.
Nursing Central combines 5 different best-selling nursing applications into one:
Davis’s Drug Guide: Information regarding dosing, interactions, and patient education for over 5,000 medications
Taber’s Medical Dictionary: Definitions of over 65,000 medical terms including images, videos, and audio pronunciation
Davis’s Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests: Gives access to rationale and results for tests and procedures, as well as pretest requirements, and post-test patient care.
Diseases and Disorders: Provides coverage and information regarding over 250 different medical conditions
MEDLINE Journals/MEDLINE Search: Provides access to more than 22 million MEDLINE/PubMed journal citations and abstracts right on your mobile device. You can link directly to full texts and share articles via email or social media.
While you can purchase all of these apps separately, subscribing via the Nursing Central app saves you some cash. This nursing app is a whopping total of $169.99 for the first year, but every year after that is $99.99.
MediBabble
(iOS: Free)
MediBabble is a free, professional-grade, medical translation tool. This nursing app helps to improve the safety and overall care for non-English speaking patients. The app comes preloaded with Spanish but also has French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian, German and Haitian Creole as free downloadable options within the app. MediBabble understands and realizes the profound impact an app like this has, which is why they believe it is too important to sell, but they do accept donations.
Image courtesy of MediBabble.com
The app has been tested in university and hospital settings, including emergency departments, inpatient wards, intensive care units, and preoperative environments. For non-English speaking or hearing-impaired patients, turning the phone to landscape mode will show a large, text-version of your selected phrase. When you are done interviewing your patient, there’s a way to review up to the past 50 questions you asked.
One of the best parts of this nursing app is that you do NOT need internet connection to access translations once downloaded. Not to mention, all content is written and reviewed by a panel of physicians. Each phrase is closely reviewed by at least two medically trained native speakers for accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and accessibility.
This app is perfect for nurses, especially traveling nurses who may visit areas with non-English speakers and want to make sure they are providing the best quality of care to them.
| Pros | Cons |
| Medically focused translation app | Takes up large amounts of space on your phone |
| Variety of languages | |
| Large type for hard of hearing | |
| Offline access | |
| Pronunciation of phrases available | |
| Phrases reviewed by medically trained native-speakers |
5. Medscape
The Medscape app was created by the infamous WebMD. Medscape provides a comprehensive set of tools to support clinicians and other healthcare professionals in decision-making support at the point of care, medical news and perspectives from healthcare thought leaders, and CME courses. Recently, a new feature, Medscape Consult, was launched and allows physicians to ask clinical questions, share images and discuss challenging or interesting cases.
With the Medscape app, you can look up drug information, including prescribing and safety information, drug ID look up, and drug interaction checker. There are nearly 130 different medical calculators, and there’s a procedure reference tool with instructions for over 1,000 clinical procedures, complete with videos. Search the MEDLINE database for journal articles or read the latest news with Medscape News.
Image courtesy of the App Store
Medscape is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation, and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The app provides physician, nursing, and pharmacy continuing education credits to help professional development. This application also gives you the opportunity to complete courses and monitor credits to fulfill licensure requirements.
Other features include offline access, a medical directory with over 460,000 physicians, pharmacies and hospitals, and the ability to save and share articles.
| Pros | Cons |
| Free | |
| Extensive article collection and over 4,000 in-depth clinical references | |
| Contains rare and obscure disease information | |
| Offline access | |
| Continuing education credits (accredited) | |
| Physician/pharmacy/hospital directory |
DOWNLOADING TIME
So, which of these five nursing app options is your favorite? Download one… or maybe all of them! Let us know which app(s) you downloaded and how its benefitted you by commenting below!
