Meeting the mathematical demands of the safety-critical workplace: medication dosage calculation problem-solving for nursing

The Impact of Calculators on a Test of Clinician Numeracy: A Randomized Controlled Trial

“…Our finding that using calculators did not have a positive impact on test scores supports the observation that CN is a complex construct that entails more than the ability to perform simple mathematical operations. The complexity of CN is highlighted by Coben and Weeks (2014), who note that numeracy in nursing practice requires being "competent, confident, and comfortable with one's judgments on whether to use mathematics in a particular situation and if so, what mathematics to use, how to do it, what degree of accuracy is appropriate, and what the answer means in relation to the context." Another nursing study describes four distinct areas of competence necessary for accurate drug dose calculation ("the 4 Cs"): computation, conceptualisation, conversion, and critical analysis (Johnson and Johnson 2002).…”

“…CN is important across the spectrum of clinical work for doctors, from routine tasks such as calculating drug doses to medical decision making. It is thus essential to patient safety (Lesar et al 1997;Hughes and Edgerton 2005;Gigerenzer et al 2007;Coben and Weeks 2014;Williams and Walker 2014).…”

“…Drug dose calculation errors are a cause of medication error and have been researched extensively in the nursing literature (Johnson and Johnson 2002;Hutton et al 2010;McMullan et al 2010;Wright 2010;Sabin et al 2013;McDonald et al 2013;Weeks et al 2013a, b, c;Young et al 2013;Coben and Weeks 2014;Fleming et al 2014;Bagnasco et al 2016). However, there has been little research on drug dose calculation skills of medical students and doctors, perhaps due to the assumption that entry to medical school assures good numeracy (Rowe et al 1998;Simpson et al 2009;Harries and Botha 2013).…”

Improvement of drug dose calculations by classroom teaching or e-learning: a randomised controlled trial in nurses

“… 10 Recent papers address the importance of including conceptual (understanding the problem), calculation (dosage computation) and technical measurement (dosage measurement) competence in teaching nurses in vocational mathematics, with models to help them understand the ‘what’, the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ in dosage problem solving. 23 24 …”

STEM Education Redefined

“…Team Work (S) X X "Good team players" (Salleh et al, 2015) "Collaboration" (Kappelman, Jones, Jonhnson, Mclean, & Boonme, 2016) Communication (S) X X "Confident communicators" (Salleh et al, 2015) "Communication" (Barker & Camarata, 1998) "Communication (Oral & Written)" (Kappelman et al, 2016) Knowledge Retention (T) X "Knowledge Management" (Drewniak & Karaszewski, 2016) and (Lin, Chang, & Tsai, 2016) Accuracy (E) X "Calculation Competence" (Coben & Weeks, 2014) Empathy (S) X X "Personal skills" (Bybee, 2010b) "People Management" (Kappelman et al, 2016), "Empathy" (Daily & Eugene, 2013), "Empathy" (Sadri, 2015) Technical Writing (T) X "Professional Writing" (Kohn, 2015) "Technical Writing" (Bourelle, 2014) "Workplace writing" (H. Yu, 2008) Efficiency (E) X X "Efficiency" (Szymczak & Bosk, 2012) and (Griggs, 2013) Analytical Skills (S) X X "Critical Thinker" (Salleh et al, 2015) and (Ramsey & Baethe, 2013) Organization Skills (M) X "Organizational Effectiveness" (Ravindranath, 2016) Competency (T) X X "Technical skills" (Bybee, 2010b) "Technical Knowledge" (Kappelman et al, 2016) Time Management (M) X X "Time Management" (Litchfield & Chater, 2007), (Ravindranath, 2016) and (Stelnicki, Nordstokke, & Saklofske, 2015) Mathematical Skills (T) X "Math confidence" (Sax, Kanny, Riggers-Piehl, Whang, & Paulson, 2015) "Mathematical Competence" (Coben & Weeks, 2014) Internships / Coops (E) X X "Internships and Coops" (Fisher et al, 2001) and (Fairweather, 2008) Exposure / Role Play (E) X "Simulation/Role-play" (Miller & Lauterbach, 2014) "Simulation" (Berk et al, 2014) Finance / Accounting (M) X "Accounting"…”