Abstract
Many students in pre-licensure nursing programs struggle with calculating accurate medication dosages even though they meet the numeracy requirements for application to the nursing programs. Most pre-licensure programs require that nursing students pass dosage calculation exams at a specified level of accuracy before progressing to the next term. Students typically have three tries to pass at the specified level and should they not succeed, they must withdraw. If they wish to continue in the program, they must complete the requirements for reentry which may include space availability restrictions. Factors influencing dosage calculation performance include fear of mathematics, low math self-efficacy, lack of practice, perception of unimportance, and decontextualization of dosage calculation problems which contributes to conceptual errors. High stakes testing environments described above exacerbate student anxiety which may hinder success. This exploratory field study sought to examine the effects of a contextualized learning intervention on dosage calculation accuracy and math self-efficacy. In addition, it examined the relationships between the students' Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS; Assessment Technologies Institute, 2020) scores, their math self-efficacy, and their ability to pass a dosage calculation exam on the first attempt. The learning intervention incorporated activities to engage the affective domain with the intent of internalizing a value for accurate dosage calculation skills. Two unique features of this learning intervention were that it occurred before students began their nursing courses and used interactive video conferencing due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Sigma Membership
Zeta Upsilon at-Large
Type
Dissertation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Pilot/Exploratory Study
Keywords:
Affective Learning, Constructivism, Contextualized Environment, Dosage Calculation, High Stakes Testing
Advisor
Katherine Sullivan
Second Advisor
Kathleen Dunemn
Third Advisor
Melissa Henry
Fourth Advisor
Cassandra Bergstrom
Degree
PhD
Degree Grantor
University of Northern Colorado
Degree Year
2021
Recommended Citation
Weatherby, Eileen V., "The effect of a contextualized dosage calculation learning intervention on pre-nursing students' math self-efficacy and ability to pass high stakes dosage calculation examination on first attempt" (2024). Dissertations. 501.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dissertations/501
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2024-06-28
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 28323722; ProQuest document ID: 2532560880. The author still retains copyright.