Learning Objective #1: Evaluate knowledge acquisition of common and complex components of medication administration.

Learning Objective #2: Describe the differences and significance between expereinced nurses and those with less than five years experience.

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Safe administration of medications and the development of strategies that will decrease errors and increase accuracy are needed. Assessing nurses' medication knowledge and performance of simple and complex drug dosage calculations using learning tools that address this concern may reduce medication error rates. Evaluating knowledge acquisition of common and complex components of medication administration introduced during nursing orientation will help clinical staff identify knowledge deficits and participate in interventions to improve accuracy.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of a self-directed guide to complex drug dosage calculations on medication assessment scores in a sample of registered nurses during hospital - nursing orientation.

A convenience sample of 250 registered nurses attending hospital-nursing orientation provided data for this descriptive, pre / post test study design.

The pre test consisted of asking nurses to respond to 10-calculation problems. Consented subjects took the pretest (Day I of orientation). They are all given the Calculation Guide and asked to complete a similar posttest on Day 3 of orientation.

Results suggest a significant difference in pre / posttest scores (p= 0.05) on complex calculations. For five of the ten complex questions on the medication assessment, there was a significant difference (p< 0.05) on pre/posttest scores when compared with years of nursing experience.

Use of “Drug Dose Calculation Guide” was found to reinforce learning, clarify complex calculation processes, and improve performance.

The results of this study support medication calculation assessment. Providing nurses with a drug dose calculation guide significantly improves competency in performing multi-step calculations and increases accuracy. This has implications for decreasing medication errors and increasing patient safety.