You need a whole lot of dedication in order to be a nurse. Aside from the fact that you have a massive burden to carry, you always have to stay focused. Nurses are medical heroes that go through high amounts of stress and intense work every single day.
A smartwatch might be the solution to help with the daily needs of nurses. Besides gathering data about their health, nurses can now be in touch with their mobile devices and leave them inside their pockets or bags. As a result, nurses won’t have to worry about missing any important messages or calls and they can fully commit to their patient.
Best Smartwatches for Nurses on the Market
To keep nurses updated about the best products and latest technology, we’ve created a list of the best smartwatches for nurses. Below, you will find the greatest products on the market, along with their pros and cons. Without further ado, let’s get started!
1. Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch
The Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch features health sensors for ECG, heart rate, and stress wrapped up in a tidy and neat package. The OLED display is bright so you will have no issues reading the time. The display is surrounded by a stainless steel bezel, and the rest of the body is made out of aluminum.
This timepiece has loads of fitness and health features which can be really handy when you’re a nurse trying to keep track of your health. It counts active time and steps, records your heart rate every five seconds, and has sleep monitoring. Another key feature of this watch is the ECG sensor, which records the rhythm of your heartbeat and is an amazing tool to have in order to keep an eye on any heart issues.
The battery is able to last for six days between when you need to charge it again, but if the screen is on the whole time and you’re using the more advanced features, then it will last about two days. Nevertheless, even two days between charges is great if you’re a nurse since you can do a whole shift without needing to charge your smartwatch!
The screen can light up by pressing the button located on the side of the watch or by turning your wrist; however, it doesn’t turn on when you tap the screen, which is something that might annoy some people. Another disadvantage is that you need to constantly open the Fitbit app on your phone to keep it from shutting down and stopping things, such as the weather, from updating on the watch.
Pros
- Detailed sleep monitoring
- Up to a 6 day battery life
- Built-in NFC and GPS
- Bright and clean display
- Has an ECG app
- Offers a ton of metrics such as skin temperature, breathing rate, and heart rate variability
Cons
- To maximize the performance, you need Fitbit Premium
- Takes time to learn the buttonless design
2. Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch
One of the best Wear OS watches you can buy as a nurse is the Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch. It delivers in almost every area – customizability, aesthetics, and, most importantly, performance. A lot of Wear OS watches can struggle to last a full day without a charge and can be a bit slow, but that’s not the case with the Fossil Gen 5 Smartwatch!
This watch features an AMOLED display and three programmable pushers located on the right side that are easy to push. One of the buttons is a rotatable crown and it’s a great alternative to swiping on the screen. Not to mention, the Carlyle model comes with a black silicone strap that is both versatile and classy.
When it comes to the hardware of the watch, the Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle Smartwatch has GPS, NFC, a heart rate sensor, 8GB of onboard storage, 1GB of RAM, 3ATM, no LTE connectivity, Bluetooth/WiFi, and three custom battery modes.
As you can see, there is plenty of space in this watch to store music and apps! The amount of ROM is excellent news if you want to leave your phone at home while you’re covering a shift at the hospital.
One of our favorite elements of this watch is the added speaker. If you use Google Assistant to speak to your watch, you can actually hear the assistant talking back to you.
Pros
- Built-in speaker
- Features NFC, GPS, and heart sensor
- Crisp display
- Easy to use
- Feels comfortable on your wrist
- Impressive design
Cons
- Doesn’t have an ECG feature
3. Garmin Venu, GPS Smartwatch
The Garmin Venu, GPS Smartwatch comes with a powerhouse of features, long-lasting battery life of up to 5 days, and an AMOLED display. This model is the first model by Garmin that comes with an AMOLED screen, and the animations on the watch are really visually appealing thanks to the crisp resolution.
The fact that this smartwatch is very comfortable to wear makes it the perfect choice for medical staff. It is also easy to wear all day and all night without it getting in the way, which is a major advantage to nurses.
This watch is mainly made out of silicone and plastic, with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covering the display. The bezel surrounding the display is made out of stainless steel. When you tap the top button you get taken to the activity screen, and when you hold it down a bit longer you get to the shortcut menu. On the other hand, when you tap the bottom button it takes you back to the previous screen, while when you press it longer it brings up your settings menu.
An interesting feature of this smartwatch is the animated on-device workout. For pilates, yoga, strength, and cardio workouts, you will see an animated person on your display that will be doing the workouts alongside you. The workouts are easy to follow and this is a great feature if you want to stretch between shifts.
Another feature you can take advantage of is the breathwork feature, which offers a few different types of breathwork, including tranquility, relaxation and focus, and coherence.
Some other features that this watch offers are keeping track of your respiration rate during the day, estimation of the sweat you’ve lost after completing an exercise, sleep tracking, heart rate sensors, SpO2 recordings, GPS, and body battery. This watch also includes WiFi, ANT+, Bluetooth, smartphone notifications, Garmin Pay, and music storage up to 3.5 GB!
Pros
- Accurate and useful sleep tracking
- Unique breathwork exercise
- 5 day battery life
- Crisp OLED screen with an always-on display
Cons
- Touchscreen can be finicky at times
4. Apple Watch Series 7
The Apple Watch Series 7 is one of the most premium watches from Apple thanks to its new colors, more health tracking features, and a bigger display than the previous models. The bigger display has given Apple the opportunity to include a keyboard in the watch so you can send a quick message from your smartwatch while you’re working. However, if you have thicker fingers and you’re struggling to type on the keyboard, you can always just ask Siri to do it for you!
The watch is dust-resistant and you can wash your hands while you’re wearing the watch without any issues. The health-tracking features are super helpful if you’re looking to keep track of basic metrics such as the length of your workout, steps taken, and calories burned.
In addition, the watch has support for heart rate measurements, the ability to take an ECG, blood oxygen saturation measures, as well as a compass for more precise location tracking. In terms of mental health, the Apple watch added the mindfulness feature, which reminds you to take a break and concentrate on your breathing.
The only disadvantage to this smartwatch is its battery life. The battery life of the watch is the same as the previous model, and it lasts only for a day. Moreover, Apple doesn’t provide a compatible wall plug in the box, so you will need to buy one separately.
Pros
- Faster charging than previous models
- QWERTY keyboard allows you to type on the watch
- Screen is brighter than previous models
- Multiple timers
Cons
- Battery life needs to last longer
- Can be difficult to type out a message because the keyboard is small
5. Amazfit GTR 3 Smart Watch
For a really affordable price, you can buy the Amazfit GTR 3 Smart Watch with onboard MP3 music storage, 21 day battery life, a speaker to support phone calls, and the addition of WiFi. The watch also offers the option to track breathing rate, stress levels, blood oxygen, and heart rate.
Not to mention, this watch includes a microphone that you can use for basic commands for the offline voice assistant or you can use Amazon Alexa. The design of the watch includes a comfortable silicone band and a matte finish around the bezel. You can navigate through the interface with the help of two buttons on the right side.
One of the most amazing things about this watch is the fact that it has a 21 day battery life, but that’s if most of the smartwatch features are turned off. However, if you’re using the smartwatch features, then that number is cut in half. All in all, the Amazfit GTR 3 Smart Watch is definitely worth more than its price tag!
Pros
- Slim and sleek body
- Lightweight
- Great battery life that can last up to a couple of weeks
- Very affordable price
- Extensive amount of customization available
Cons
- Doesn’t work well with iOS
- Notifications can be infrequent
Things to Consider When Buying a Smartwatch for Nurses
In order to get the best possible product on the market, you need to understand the product you’re buying and have sufficient knowledge on the subject. Once you know all there is about a certain product, you can easily pick the best one according to your needs and interests.
In this section, we will discuss the most important things you need to consider when you’re purchasing a smartwatch for nurses. When you’re done reading this section, hopefully, you will have a better understanding of what you need and you will make the right purchasing decision.
Battery Life
Battery life is one of the most important things if you’re a nurse that’s looking for a smartwatch since you probably need to pull a lot of long shifts. The last thing you want is your watch dying in the middle of your shift!
However, something you should keep in mind is that if your smartwatch has more advanced features, such as the ability to text and call, the battery life will be lower. There are watches that can go for a longer period of time before they need to be recharged and ones that will barely make it through one shift, so make sure you pick wisely.
Water Resistance
Having a watch with a water resistant feature might feel like it’s out of place among the features you need to look for in the best smartwatch for nurses. However, nurses need to constantly wash their hands and, for this reason, a smartwatch needs to be water resistant.
If you’re occasionally exposed to water (such as bathing a patient or handwashing), 3ATM or 100 feet are more than sufficient for your smartwatch. You need to look for watches with 160 feet of water resistance if you want to wear your watch while you’re swimming.
Device Compatibility
No matter if you’re a nurse or not, device compatibility is something that is essential for any smartwatch. There are watches that are able to connect with any operating system, but there are also watches that can only connect with a certain type of operating system.
For instance, some smartwatches are only able to pair with either iOS or Android. All watches need either WiFi connectivity or Bluetooth to establish a connection, and the strength of the connection will depend on the software version of the smartwatch and the phone.
Size
A bulky smartwatch can be an issue for a nurse. It can constantly bump against hospital equipment and it can interfere with your ability to do your job properly. Look for watches that are smaller in size and relatively lightweight, but are made out of scratch-resistant glass and other durable materials so they can last longer.
Health Features
Nurses need to make sure that their health is in the best shape. Most smartwatches track the number of floors climbed, steps taken, calories burned, heart rate, and sleeping patterns. Moreover, most smartwatches allow you to push your fitness and health data to other apps such as Samsung Health or Apple Health. Besides health and fitness metrics, smartwatches are great for nurses for a variety of other reasons.
Some smartwatches come with features such as contactless payments, managing music controls, and sending and receiving calls and texts. Even though most smartwatches support calendar updates, and notifications for text messages and calls, not all of them allow you to text, make calls, or control your music.
Design
Even though the design of the smartwatch might not be as important for nurses, it’s still one of the first things you notice about a watch. Thankfully, plenty of companies nowadays are manufacturing smartwatches and, as a result, you should be able to find smartwatches in different shapes and designs. What type of design you choose will depend on your personal preference and style.
Color
Another factor that might not be important for you as a nurse is the color of the smartwatch, but if you’re a person that always likes to be stylish, you might pay extra attention to this.
The things that determine the color of the watch are its straps and body. Both the watch strap and body come in many different colors. Some common colors that are chosen for smartwatches include white, rose gold, gold, and black.
Final Thoughts
As you know, nursing is not an easy job to do. Nurses work hard and very often they do it in challenging conditions. Smartwatches can make the lives of nurses more efficient in a number of ways.
As you can see from our list of the best smartwatch for nurses, every smartwatch has its own pros and cons. Think about your budget, what you want in a smartwatch, and that will help you decide which timepiece is the best choice for you!
