Software Package Ownership Rights and Common Software Useful to Nurses
Software Package Ownership Rights
§ The software industry has followed an ownership model more similar to that of the book publishing industry than that used
by vendors of most commercial products.
§ The product sold is a physical product that can be used only by one customer at a time. Copying the product is not feasible.
§ Copyright laws were extended to software so that only the original purchaser was legally empowered to install the program
on his or her computer. Any other installations were considered illegal copies and were called pirate copies.
§ Individually purchased software is licensed to one and only one computer.
Common Software Useful to Nurses
o Software used by nurses include:
§ Admission, Discharge, Transfer (ADT) Systems
§ Medication administration software
§ Charting software
§ Computer physician order entry (CPOE) system
o Nurses may have the support of computer based systems for laboratory and radiology orders and results reporting, a
computerized patient acuity system used for nurse staff allocation.
CHAT ROOMS
STRENGTHS:
§ Multiple users can send and receive messages at the same time.
§ Some are private and require passwords to enter while others are public.
§ It has the ability to “meet” people without them leaving their homes.
§ Messages disappear once they scroll off the screen
DANGER:
§ USERS CAN BE ANONYMOUS AND ANYBODY CAN PARTICIPATE IN A PUBLIC CHATROOM
LISTSERVS
§ Least powerful version of an electronic bulletin board
§ It functions more like an electronic mailing list than a discussion board.
§ The software may or may not store all messages in an accessible archive so users can review all entries at one time.
