Mobile technology: lessons learned along the way.

Although mobile technology has the potential to promote patient safety by increasing accuracy and efficiency, faculty may find instituting a personal digital assistant (PDA) program overwhelming. In addition, there is a dearth of information on how students are using this technology. The authors discuss the implementation of a PDA program that required all nursing students entering their first clinical rotation to purchase a PDA loaded with nursing software and describe how the students used this technology. Lessons learned along the way are emphasized to help faculty develop, implement, and/or improve their school's PDA/software program.