Innovative Educational Strategies to Improve Dosage Calculation Competency in a Nursing Program.

BACKGROUND

Medication dosage calculation (MDC) errors remain a persistent concern to patient safety and a barrier to nursing student progression. Programs continue to seek scalable, sustainable instructional strategies to improve MDC competency.

PROBLEM: Significant declines in pass rates occurred with more than half of students across program levels failing initial MDC assessments.

APPROACH: A retrospective program evaluation examined MDC outcomes across 13 semesters (4 pre- and 9 postimplementation) following the implementation of a standardized, experiential MDC initiative integrating instruction, simulation, and assessment. First-attempt pass rates were compared using a t test to assess program-level change over time.

OUTCOMES: Mean semester-level MDC pass rates were significantly higher postimplementation, t(3.79) = -4.18, P = .016, with the postimplementation semesters consistently meeting or exceeding the program benchmark.

CONCLUSIONS

A standardized, experiential approach to MDC instruction was associated with sustained improvements in program-level outcomes and provides practical guidance for nurse educators seeking data-driven curricular innovations to support medication safety and student progression.