[The intravenous medication calculation abilities in registered nurses at a teaching hospital in southern taiwan].

Medication errors, especially related to intravenous medications, can lead to the prolonged hospitalization and even patient death. Subtherapeutic dose and dose calculation errors represent the major cause of intravenous medication errors in hospitals. Many investigators have undertaken studies to evaluate the dose calculation ability of healthcare professionals. However, little is known about the dose calculation ability for intravenous medication among nurse staff and nursing students in Taiwan. Goals of this study were to evaluate the intravenous medication calculation ability of registered nurses and nursing students and determine the relationship between dose calculation ability and various nurse demographic characteristics. The study was approved by the institutional research ethics committee. A convenience sample of 185 nurse staff and 70 nursing students were recruited from a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. A self-developed questionnaire containing demographic information and a sixteen item dose calculation examination (CVI = 80% approximately 100%, test-retest reliability alpha = .808) were used. Descriptive Statistics, Chi-Square test, Spearman correlation, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test were analyzed using SPSS Windows 13.0. Findings showed an overall mean score of dose calculation ability for intravenous medication of 11.77 +/- 3.20 among nurses and 3.90 +/- 2.94 among nursing students. The dose calculation ability of nurses was higher than that of nursing students, and the dose calculation ability of the nurses was positively associated with working years and clinical ladders. Findings are discussed in terms of implications of continuous quality improvement as well as continue education for hospital managers and nursing educators.