Assessment of the mathematical skills of nursing students in calculating mandatory doses

Introduction
Prospective nursing students must acquire a number of important skills, one of which is the ability to calculate medication doses. This paper presents the system of shaping students’ skills in calculating and converting drug doses at the undergraduate level. The aim of the study was to assess the competencies and mathematical skills of first-cycle nursing students at the bachelor’s level in the field of calculating drug doses.

Material and methods
The research material was a group of 100 students from various universities in Poland. The applied research method was a diagnostic survey based on the “Drug dosage calculation” questionnaire, an original interview questionnaire The applied research method was a diagnostic survey based on the „Drug dosage calculation” questionnaire, an original interview questionnaire. The questions in the interview questionnaire concerned the ability to calculate drug doses. The main part of the questionnaire contained 10 tasks for self-calculation. The third method used in the study was the statistical method. The calculations were made in the IBM SPSS program. The research was conducted in the period from November 2021 to March 2022.

Results
The minimum number of points that could be obtained under this variable was 0 points, and the maximum was 10 points. In the studied group, the lowest result was 5 points (n = 1), and the highest was 10 points (n = 28). The most common value and the middle value were 9 points, and 32 respondents obtained such a result. The Kruskal Wallis statistical test showed no relationship between students’ knowledge and skills in calculating drug doses and the year of study (p = 0.428). The Mann-Whitney U test also did not confirm significant differences between the groups in the level of mathematical skills and participation in classes preparing for self-calculation of doses during studies (p = 0.19).

Conclusions
The year of study does not affect the level of skills in calculating drug doses. Nursing students have no problem with simple math calculations related to multiplication and division within the same units. The most problematic tasks were those related to calculating the drug flow in the infusion pump in ml/h.