Pharmacy students' preference for using mobile devices in a clinical setting for practice-related tasks

OBJECTIVE

To examine pharmacy students' ownership of, use of, and preference for using a mobile device in a practice setting.

METHODS

Eighty-one pharmacy students were recruited and completed a pretest that collected information about their demographics and mobile devices and also had them rank the iPhone, iPad mini, and iPad for preferred use in a pharmacy practice setting. Students used the 3 devices to perform pharmacy practice-related tasks and then completed a posttest to again rank the devices for preferred use in a pharmacy practice setting.

RESULTS

The iPhone was the most commonly owned mobile device (59.3% of students), and the iPad mini was the least commonly owned (18.5%). About 70% of the students used their mobile devices at least once a week in a pharmacy practice setting. The iPhone was the most commonly used device in a practice setting (46.9% of students), and the iPod Touch was the least commonly used device (1.2%). The iPad mini was the most preferred device for use in a pharmacy practice setting prior to performing pharmacy practice-related tasks (49.4% of students), and was preferred by significantly more students after performing the tasks (70.4%).

CONCLUSION

Pharmacy students commonly use their mobile devices in pharmacy practice settings and most selected the iPad mini as the preferred device for use in a practice setting even though it was the device owned by the fewest students.