Medication dosage calculation among nursing students: does digital technology make a difference? A literature review

Abstract

Background Patient safety is a major part of nursing care and following patients’ medication orders is considered one of the greatest responsibilities of individual nurses and nursing Failure to make safe drug calculations poses serious risks to patient safety. It is therefore important to strengthen nursing students’ numeracy skills and conceptual abilities during their education. Research suggests that digital technologies play an increasingly important role in promoting nursing students’ knowledge and medication dosage calculation (MDC) skills. The present review aims to identify and critically evaluate research investigating how the use of digital technologies informs the development of nursing students’ MDC skills. Methods A systematic literature review was performed within Scopus (Elsevier), Academic Search Elite (Ebsco), Cinahl (Ebsco), ERIC (Ebsco), Web of Science and PubMed. Research papers on MDC using digital technologies were considered for inclusion. Starting from 2843 sources, eighteen research articles met the inclusion criteria. Results The results show that use of digital technologies can reduce nursing students’ medication errors. Interestingly, web-based courses were the most commonly used digital technologies aimed at developing nursing students’ MDC skills. However, such courses had limited impacts the development of these skills. Conclusion The present review concludes by mapping the current knowledge gaps and making suggestions for further research.

The Effect of Padlet on Nursing Students’ Drug Dose Calculation Skills

“…Mackie and Bruce (45) reported that lessons and online resources designed as an intervention to target mathematical concepts and skills led to improved results and increases in overall pass rates for second-year students for medication dosage calculation tests. Stake-Nilsson et al (41) suggest that digital technologies are increasingly important in promoting nursing students' knowledge and medication dosage calculation skills (36). The results also show that nursing students need more lessons for drug dose calculations that require math skills.…”

Prescribing pattern of antipsychotics for patients with schizophrenia using the total daily dose online tool

“…Further, there was a significant correlation between BNF and several factors, including the class of antipsychotic, as well as number and type of medications. To this end, several studies have investigated the importance of using TDD calculators for antipsychotic medications( Stake-Nilsson et al, 2022 ). A previous study conclude that calculated dose equivalents based on Defined Daily Doses (DDDs) can be a useful resource for pharmacovigilance studies( Leucht et al, 2016 ).…”

Effects of Dimensional Analysis on Infusible Medication Calculation Skills Among Nursing Students in an Intensive Care Unit

“…13 The 3 main factors affecting the ability of nurses to correctly calculate medication dosage and identify errors include mathematical abilities, especially the ability to multiply decimal numbers, understand medication formulas, and understand the concept of medication dosage. 14 Both perceptual and computational skills should be considered to improve the method of pharmacological calculations. 15 As a result, having mathematical skills in calculating drug dosage is one of the fundamental principles of safe drug delivery.…”