Roxena Wotring, RN, MS and Barbara Niesel, RNC, BSN, MN. College of Nursing, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA
There is a national concern regarding the increasing frequency of medication errors resulting in preventable hospital injury or deaths. Nursing educators, both nationally and internationally, have expressed a desire to analyze their own teaching methods regarding medication preparation. At Arizona State University (ASU) College of Nursing (CON), an initial goal was to determine what teaching methods might reduce the frequency of medication errors. A team of ASU nursing educators identified a need to investigate best evidence practice for improving student performance in medication calculations. In implementing evidence based practice for nursing students, a clinical question was formulated utilizing an evidenced based practice (EBP) systemic method called the PICO question which means: P: Population of interest; I: Intervention of interest; C: Comparison intervention;and O: Outcome of interest. The PICO method guided the construction of a focused question. The research team formulated the following PICO question: When teaching undergraduate nursing students, is dimensional analysis more effective than other teaching methods in reducing math errors as evidenced by improved test scores on medication tests and improved accuracy with calculations in psychometric exercises? Participants at the symposium will be able to identify how to utilize this PICO mechanism to formulate a searchable, answerable, clinical question. The ASU College of Nursing EBP Office provided the research team with two tools: “Rapid Critical Appraisal of Systematic Reviews of clinical Interventions/treatments” and “Rapid Critical Appraisal Checklist for a Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT).” Both tools enabled the research team to review relevant evidence of teaching method effectiveness found in the literature. Symposium participants will be able to identify how to use these critical appraisal research literature tools. Use of the PICO question and these tools directed the ASU nursing team to a comprehensive critical review of best practices in nursing education regarding medication calculation and/or dimensional analysis.