Wearing a smartwatch makes sense for nurses. They spend long hours on the job, which requires them to always be on alert, to always be clean, to remember a wide variety of things, and to be on top of every situation. The best smartwatches for nurses would allow doing their work more efficiently.
- Easy to read notifications at a glance
- Waterproof (can even go swimming) – or washing hands
- Industry leading data tracking
- Durable Gorilla glass
- In depth sleep tracking
- 4G connectivity, even away from phone
- Offline music listening
- Pay with your watch
- Worn around neck, or clipped on to clothing
- Perfect for medical environmentwith jewelry restrictions
For one, a great smartwatch for nurses should be waterproof, because they often find themselves having to wash their hands. It should also include a second hand, or at least a customizable watch face that would allow them to get a second hand. This is because they need to count pulses and respiratory rates, and sometimes for IV pushes, too.
A great smartwatch should also be able to accurately track fitness, as well as notify or alert you of messages you received on your phone, incoming calls, or calendar events so that you wouldn’t have to carry your phone with you all the time or to take it out of your pocket every now and then.
Lastly, it should be able to alert you if you are stressed and help you relax. Or at least allow you to install apps that would allow you to do just that. If you are a nurse and you are looking for the perfect smartwatch for you, here are some of our recommendations.
1. The Garmin Vivomove HR
The Garmin Vivomove HR gives you an easy and convenient way to stay healthy. It tells you about your heart rate, the calories you burned, the number of steps you have taken, and the flights of stairs you have climbed.
It will also tell you about the quality of your sleep, and give you insights on how to be healthier or have better sleep. This is a tremendous help for nurses who are habitually deprived of sleep.
Nursing can be a very demanding job, and the Garmin Vivomove HR can alert you when you are stressed and then provide you with a relaxation timer and help you with deep breathing exercises to lower your stress levels.
Moreover, if you are one who puts a premium on pretty things, the Garmin Vivomove HR would not disappoint. Apart from having a rose gold-colored watch face, it also has a sports version and a chemically strengthened glass lens.
It is tough and does not easily get damaged even if it has hit hard surfaces many times. Further, it has an analog watch face combined with a touchscreen display that delivers all the smart features mentioned above.
Most medical professionals prefer an analog watch over digital ones because they can take a patient’s vital signs without having to press any button or look at small numbers on their watches. They just have to look at the second hand and count a patient’s pulse, for instance.
The Vivomove HR does not really solve this problem because even if it does have an analog face, it does not have a second hand that would have served this purpose.
You can, however, still access the timer or the stopwatch with just a few gestures. As a nurse, it is also necessary to wash your hands very often. No problem with the Garmin Vivomove HR; you do not have to take it off to wash your hands. You can even take it swimming!
There are times when a nurse cannot be distracted and may not be able to take their phones out of their pocket. No problem with the Vivomove HR because it can remind you when it is time to start your rounds or remind a doctor of a patient’s concerns or go check up on a patient. You can read notifications on the watch face itself.
Price
Depending on your preferred colors, band material and watch size, the Garmin Vivomove HR can cost you anywhere from $200 to $300.
2. Fitbit Ionic
If your concern is to be on top of your health as you meet the exacting demands of being a nurse, then you should take a look at Fitbit. Fitbit offers various devices and the brand is particularly known for its fitness tracking capabilities.
Its latest device is the Fitbit Ionic, which is seen as a step up from the Fitbit Blaze. The Fitbit Ionic uses a new operating system and has NFC and GPS features.
It has a square face, which might be a turn-off for some people. But it does look beautiful with three options as far as color combinations are concerned: slate blue and burnt orange, blue-gray and silver-gray, and charcoal and smoke gray.
Like the earlier Fitbits, you can mix and match it with a number of leather and silicone bands that come in different colors.
It also has a bright display and stellar display resolution. If you are the clumsy type, then there is no need to worry as the screen uses Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which makes it impervious to scratches and damage. The case has aerospace-grade aluminum but is very lightweight. So work and move all you want without worrying about your watch.
Moreover, frequent handwashing is not a problem as the smartwatch is water-resistant up to 50 meters. This also makes the Ionic safe from splashes and rain.
You also do not have to take it off when you go for a swim. Unlike other Fitbit devices, Ionic has its own GPS antenna, allowing you to leave your smartphone at home or at your station when you make rounds. You can still get accurate movement monitoring.
The Fitbit Ionic can easily help you stay on top of your health and wellness. It tracks the number of steps you have taken, the number of calories you burned, the flights of stairs you climbed, and the distance you have traveled.
It will remind you to move if you still have not reached your mini-goals for a particular hour. It can also track your sleep stages and let you know whether you are getting enough restful sleep. Furthermore, you can get your heart rate information when you want it.
The Ionic also allows you to use your own personalized watch face. So if you want to have an easy way to count a patient’s pulse, you can select from the Ionic’s readily available watch faces.
Or you can create your own using the soon-to-be-released Fitbit Studio. Depending on how you use your Fitbit Ionic, the lithium polymer battery can last up to four days on a single charge. If you have the GPS turned on, you can still get up to 10 hours of operation.
Moreover, you can get mobile apps on your smartwatch, which is a great way to extend its usefulness. For instance, if you often forget to drink water and hydrate, you can install Waterlogged on your Ionic to keep track of your fluids intake.
And because Ionic allows you to pay for your purchases using NFC technology, there are apps such as Walgreens Balance Rewards, which gives you additional incentives to keep fit. If your hospital has its own mobile apps with smartwatch support, you could also add these to your Fitbit Ionic.
Price
The Fitbit Ionic is currently available for pre-order and will cost you $300.
3. Huawei Watch 2
With the Huawei Watch 2, you can totally forget about your phone while you are on your shift at the hospital. The Huawei Watch 2 has standalone 4G connectivity that allows you to keep your smartphone away.
Not only that, the Huawei Watch 2 is a pretty good-looking smartwatch with a ceramic bezel that is six times stronger than stainless steel. You can choose from a wide array of bands in nine different colors. And if you want that old analog watch to look very useful second-hand, you can choose just the right analog face for you.
The Huawei Watch 2 is rated IP68, which means that it is very resistant to dust, sand, and dirt. What’s more, you can take the watch underwater up to 1.5 meters deep and up to 30 minutes. So, you can wash your hands as often as you like without taking your watch off!
And just like the two other smartwatches, the Huawei Watch 2 can be relied on to monitor your workout. You can get live mapping, heart rate monitoring, workout guidance, data reports, and even offline music. All of that without having to carry your phone around!
You can also download compatible mobile apps on your Huawei Watch 2. On top of that, the Watch 2 works with Google Assistant, allowing you to use voice commands.
So, if you have your hands full with patient charts, medications, and other stuff, you can use your voice to tell your smartwatch what you want it to do. The Huawei Watch 2 also comes with an NFC antenna that allows you to pay with your smartwatch.
The Huawei Watch 2 packs in a lot of features into its smartwatch offering, making it very useful at work. Even without stress management and relaxation modules, its ability to allow you to use voice command via Google Assistant and to add your own mobile apps puts the Huawei Watch 2 at the top even when compared with the two other best smartwatches for nurses.
Price
You can buy the Huawei Watch 2 for $300.
Bonus
There are some hospitals that do now allow nurses to wear anything below the elbow because of safety and sanitation concerns. For this reason, you should be looking at clip-on. The only problem is, there seem to be no good clip-on smartwatches available today.
A Clip-on Option? The closest you can get is the Fitbit Zip, which works if you only need to keep track of or monitor your health. It does not have an analog watch face and instead functions as an out and out fitness tracker that you can clip on anywhere.
For female nurses, you might have better options, with smart jewelry such as Motiv, Senstone, or Bellabeat Leaf.
All of these do not have a display, so you would still need to pair them with your smartphone and they also do not have analog watch faces. As you can see, these clip-on are not really ideal for nurses, but they do give you a way of tracking your fitness when you are at work and even if you are not allowed to wear a smartwatch.
