Summary
Background: Pre-rounding is essential to preparing for morning rounds. Despite its importance,
pre-rounding is rarely formally taught within the medical school curriculum and more
often informally learned by modeling residents. The evolution of mobile applications
provides opportunities to optimize this process.
Objectives: To evaluate three options available to medical students while pre-rounding and promote
adoption of mobile resources in clinical care.
Methods: Six medical students formed the evaluation cohort. Students were surveyed to assess
pre-rounding practices. Participants utilized paper-based pre-rounding templates for
two weeks followed by two weeks of the electronic note-taking service EvernoteTM.
A review of mobile applications on the iTunesTM and Google PlayTM stores was performed,
with each application informally reviewed by a single student. The application ScutsheetTM
was selected for formal review by all students. Data was collected from narrative
responses supplied by students throughout the evaluation periods and aggregated to
assess strengths and limitations of each application.
Results: Pre-study responses demonstrated two consistent processes: verbal sign-out of overnight
events and template use to organize patient information. The paper-based template
was praised for its organization and familiarity amongst residents, but perceived
as limited by the requirement of re-copying data into the hospital’s electronic medical
record (EMR). EvernoteTM excelled due to compatibility across multiple operating systems,
including accessibility from clinical workstations and ability to copy notes into
the hospital’s EMR. ScutsheetTM allowed for retention of data across multiple hospital
days, but was limited by inability to export data or modify the electronic template.
Aggregated user feedback identified the abilities to customize templates and copy
information into the EMR as two prevailing characteristics that enhanced the efficiency
of pre-rounding.
Discussion: Mobile devices offer the potential to enhance pre-rounding efficiency for medical
students and residents. A customizable EvernoteTM-based system is described in sufficient
detail for reproduction by interested students.
Keywords
Application - mobile health - electronics - tablet pc - smartphone - pre-rounding
