Book Review
Nursing Calculations: A course to develop and assess skills in nursing calculations
Hamish Thomson
Pre-registration Nursing Programme Leader, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, King's College London, United Kingdom
Educational Innovations
This Nursing Calculations CD-Rom comes with an endorsement by the Royal College of Nursing, Australia and is aimed at three main groups; nursing students who are studying drug calculations and are therefore also required to know all of the underpinning mathematics; Qualified nurses who wish to develop their mathematical and drug calculation skills and want a resource that will allow them to maintain and develop their mathematical and drug calculation skills and education and training institutions that wish to offer their students a resource and assess their skills.
The CD-Rom is divided into seven sections covering the metric system and SI units, nursing tools including syringes, tape measures, measuring jugs and scales, fractions, ratios, percentages, decimals and a final section on the use of computers and calculators, which correctly points out that there may be situations where it is not appropriate to use a calculator. This final point is in keeping with the NMC (2002) statement that: "Some drug administrations can require complex calculations to ensure that the correct volume or quantity of medication is administered. In these situations, it may be necessary for a second practitioner to check the calculation in order to minimise the risk of error. The use of calculators to determine the volume or quantity of medication should not act as a substitute for arithmetical knowledge and skill."
Each of the seven sections contain brief and clear learning outcomes, notes which provide instruction as well as worked examples of each activity and a range of practice questions at easy, intermediate and harder levels. At the end the user can view their scorecard, which provides a summary of performance and can be printed out for comparison with future performance.
At the end of the instructional sections there are two tests, one covers drug calculation problems covering tablets, injections and infusion rates. The other test, which can be used as an assessment by a training institution, is divided into two sections dealing with nursing calculations (numeracy skills) and drug calculations.
Overall this CD-Rom provides a useful range of activities, which will appeal to individuals who enjoy using computer-assisted learning and are motivated to work through the calculations on their own.
References
Nursing & Midwifery Council (2002) Guidelines for the administration of medicine: Protecting the public through professional standards. London. NMC.
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