5 Things Worth the Investment: Apple Edition

July 29, 2026

If you scrolled on any social platform over the last week or two, you may have seen a trend emerging on: “5 things worth the money”. People are sharing their 5 things they find worth the investment for a variety of areas in life. 

I decided to offer my 5 things worth the investment focused on work and life technology needs. I am an Apple user and there are several products and services that I depend on each day. 

Below are my top 5 things worth the investment: Apple Edition

(ps… this is not an ad, just me sharing my preferences)

1.MacBook Pro (over Air): 

The Air is lighter and that is an advantage. However, I often feel limited in what I can accomplish with the Air in terms of connecting to other devices. I prefer the Pro. The Pro has more ports to connect devices such as display monitors, charging cables, headphones and more. 

2. iCloud Drive: 

Sync your files to iCloud and pay for the extra storage. Keep everything in one location that is accessible from any Apple device. Nothing should be kept on your hard drive that is not also backed up somewhere else. The Cloud allows for greater flexibility than an external hard drive. (However, both are valuable if you want a 3rd back up). 

3. Apple Care: 

Apple Care is similar to insurance but for your tech needs. You likely have a deductible for each item that needs assistance with some things covered at no cost. A check in at the Genius Bar and evaluation will tell you what you need. In the last few months, I have needed Apple Care for both my MacBook Pro and one of my iPhones. I recently learned that you can bundle several items for a condensed price each month. 

4. Air Tags: 

I love these little discs! How many times have you traveled and wondered:

  • “What do I do if my bag doesn’t make it off the baggage claim belt?” 

or 

  • “Where did I leave my keys?”

or

  • “What floor did I park my car on (after entering a massive parking lot)?”

Well, now I have an Air Tag in my car, attached to my keychain and also in the car. When I need to, I can go to “Find My” on my iPhone and search for the item (or device). These are well worth the expense. 

(I would love to see these also applied to hospital equipment when nurses are looking for pumps, poles, wheelchairs, tubes for the tube system and more).

5. iPhone: Choose your preferred model

I am a double iPhone user with a 13 Pro Max and a 17 Pro Max. However, I have had many of the iPhones over the years. I do not buy a new one each year but do upgrade after a few years as the software ages out and the camera usually gets better. 

There are now multiple models and different sizes on the iPhone. The integration with the apps and my MacBook Pro, iCloud Drive, Find My, Air Tags and more make it all an integrated system. 

There are a few other Apple products I depend on each day, but these are my top 5! (There are also a couple I have but never really adopted however those items are much fewer in number).

Sincerely, 

~ Dr. Tiffany Kelley PhD MBA RN NI-BC FNAP FAAN

5 Reasons Why Nurses Need Apps

March 04, 2016    |   , , , , , ,

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“Why do Nurses Need Apps?“

Last week someone asked me, ‘Why do nurses need apps?’ His question made me realize that the need for nurses to have apps to do their day-to-day work taking care of patients may not be obvious to the general public. I often tell nurses that it is our responsibility to inform others of our role and responsibilities, impact on patient care and overall value we bring to the health care industry. We are the subject matter experts and the champions for our profession. So, in the spirit of the message I often send to other nurses, I’d like to offer 5 reasons why nurses need apps to help support their delivery of high quality patient care.

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The problem is big enough that it deserves a solution.

March 03, 2016    |   , , , , , ,

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“How did you know that your idea was good enough to start a business?”

 

I was asked this question in reference to my idea to create Know My Patient TM and then a business around it, Nightingale Apps LLC. It was a question I hadn’t been asked before. My response at that time was that I never questioned it, rather I just knew it was good enough.

 

For those who are not familiar, I created Know My Patient TM, Nightingale Apps’ patent-pending mobile workflow nursing solution, in an effort to address the daily challenges faced by nurses each day to access, enter and use information for the purpose of providing their patients with the best care.

Know My Patient

 

In a world where we, as consumers, rely on our phones to support our own personal information needs, answer our own questions, and allow for quick entry of information to communicate with others, we must bring that to our nurses. After all, our nurses are saving lives each day. Their focal point is the patient and whatever the patient needs, where he/she needs it.

 

When I came up with this idea several years ago, I could not accept that nurses would continue to rely on workaround solutions with scraps of paper, be bogged down with moving heavy ‘mobile’ carts (as their mobile solution), stay late (most if not all shifts) to catch up on charting, and feel as though they have turned into ‘glorified data entry specialists’. If we continue to make it challenging for nurses to do their work, we will likely end up driving nurses away from the profession. The statistics show we cannot afford to do that and take care of the population.

 

There are over 3 million nurses in the United States. Nurses become nurses to provide care to patients. Nurses do not go through nursing school, to become nurses,  and subsequently struggle with finding and entering information into electronic charting systems, often referred to as Electronic Health Records (EHRs). Nurses currently struggle to have the information they need about their patients at their fingertips. Yes, EHRs are the way to go in the sense that we need electronic record of information in order to apply more advanced algorithms and analytical reports on the data to improve population health outcomes. I do support the need for EHRs and even wrote a textbook for nurses and health care professionals about EHRs () to drive quality patient care.

Electronic Health Records for Quality Nursing and Health Care

I have worked in this field of informatics for the last 12 years and enjoy the work but I see how hard it is on nurses providing direct care and it takes a toll on their experience and overall job satisfaction. Thus we need a solution that interacts with the EHR. The solution is to provide nurses with tools that support how they work that improve their ability to be efficient. We’ve created that solution with Know My Patient TM and it has been met with remarkable praise from nurses.

 

So, what I didn’t say to that person who asked me the question: How did you know that your idea was good enough to start a business?” was that the problem is big enough that it deserves a solution. Additionally, the solution should be developed in such a way that addresses the needs of nurses to alleviate the challenges faced each day (look for my next blog post: 5 reasons why nurses need apps for more specific information).

“You are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?”

November 30, 2015    |   , , , , , , ,

“You are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?”

I said these words a few weeks ago during a doctor’s visit. When it was my turn to be seen, I was brought back to a very small room and the nurse said, “I need to take your vitals”. She sat me down and started with my blood pressure. I turned my head to my left to look at what she was doing and that was when I saw it:

the yellow post-it note.

yellow-post-it-note

I reacted with: “Oh my, you are taking my vitals on a post-it note!?” The nurse responded, “ Well yes, I have to put them (e.g., my vital signs) in the computer.”

 

My mind started to race… ‘My vital patient information that can potentially be used over time, to assess my physical health status while under the care of this practice, is being written down on a post-it note.‘

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Nurses need to be cared for too.

November 01, 2015    |   , , , , , ,

I envision a day in the near future where we can support nurses with tools that allow them to spend more time with their patients and less time searching for information needed to provide safe, efficient care.

Nurses struggle to efficiently answer basic questions about their patients, often not just for themselves but also for the patient’s families and the larger health care team.

What basic questions you might ask? Below is a list of a small subset of the many questions nurses get asked each day while providing patient care:

  • Have my (the patient’s) labs/exams/test results come back yet?
  • When is the patient due for meds?
  • Does the patient have any allergies?
  • When can I (the patient) go home?

In each of the above questions, nurses need to provide an answer. How do they find that answer? Well, maybe they know from their memory, but if not, nurses have this trusted tool in their pocket: a piece of paper. 

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It is all about the process.

May 06, 2015    |   , , , , ,

I am a nurse, an informaticist, and at times, I am also a patient. Last summer, I made an appointment for a vision exam. I was getting into my car to drive to the office when I noticed I had a voice mail. The voice mail was from the office letting someone else know that her glasses were in and she could come pick them up. I thought, ‘well that is strange, I’ll have to let them know when I get there that they called the wrong number’. What I should have done was call right back. Had I called back, I would have found out that my appointment needed to be rescheduled due to a malfunction with the equipment that day. (Instead, I drove to the office and found out in person). Although, had I called when I got the voicemail, I wouldn’t have identified the informatics challenge I saw upon arrival to the office. Read more