Using the World Wide Web to Improve Medication Calculation Skills

SUMMARY

Pharmacological therapeutics have advanced in recent years. As a consequence of this, the complexity of calculations required by health‐care professionals has increased concomitantly. The continuing incidence of medication errors reported in the literature indicates that, in order to maintain competence in calculating medications from drug order sheets, undergraduate and registered nurses need opportunities to practise and review this skill. Identifying this need, an interdisciplinary team at James Cook University involving nursing, education and computer science staff developed a computer‐assisted learning (CAL) package. This allows nurses to practise in a supportive environment, at their own pace, receiving immediate feedback. The purpose of the paper is fourfold. First, it discusses the reasons why practice in medication calculations was delivered as a CAL package on the World Wide Web. Second, it describes the development of the package including design features, constraints and cost effectiveness. Third, an evaluation of the use of the package by undergraduate nurses is presented. Finally, several issues related to the use of CAL and the World Wide Web as a transport medium are discussed.