Effects of Education on Nurse's Knowledge and Skill in Drug Dosage Calculation

Medication errors are considered as fatal and critical complications of treatment. Thousands of medication errors committed by medical and paramedical staff are being reported, annually. This study aimed at evaluating the effects of continuous education on nurses’ knowledge and skill of drug dosage calculation. This study was an educational random trial with pre-post tests, before and after the educational intervention. Solomon four group design was used in this research. Subjects of the study (n=100) were randomly assigned according to official registration number, from all nurses (n=220) who replied to formal announcement in the University’s website and written notice attached on the boards in clinical settings. Educational intervention was planned according to subjects’ educational needs in regards to drug dosage calculation in workshop format. The results of this study indicated that the scores in each sub-tests including injectable drugs (P=0.001), soluble drugs (P<0.000), drug dosage concentration (P<0.000) and infusion solutions (P=0.007) significantly increased after educational intervention. The results indicated that there were significant differences in subjects’ scores in the four groups (P<0.000). The results showed that a significant difference existed between the scores obtained by the main group of nurses and other groups. Findings of this study confirm the effectiveness of educational intervention in improving nurses’ knowledge and skill in drug dosage calculation and they show that the participant nurses were in profound need for continuous education in regards to injectable drug dosage calculation. This finding is in line with most other research projects all over the world which indicate the necessity of educational interventions to meet nurses’ educational needs.