Sally Moore and Dharshana Jayewardene look at the rise in the use of mobile software at work

The use of smartphones and applications or ‘apps’ in clinical practice among nurses and doctors is on the increase. This article discusses the results of a survey undertaken as part of a service improvement project to develop an ‘app’ for use by junior doctors. The survey asked nurses and doctors to share information about how they used their smartphones at work, what they used them for and how and if they risk assessed the apps they use. Responses from 82 nurses and 334 doctors show a high level of users of text books, formularies, clinical decision tools and calculators, with less than one quarter of these users performed any risk assessment before use.