Finnish nurses' and nursing students' pharmacological skills

PURPOSES AND OBJECTIVES: The purposes of this study were to investigate the pharmacological skills of Finnish nurses and graduating nursing students, to determine how pharmacological skills are related to background factors and to identify differences between nurses and students and, finally, to examine how the instrument used, the Medication Calculation Skills Test, works.

Pharmacology is a relevant and topical subject. In several studies, however, pharmacological skills of nurses and nursing students have been found insufficient. In addition, pharmacology as a subject is found to be difficult for both nursing students and nurses.

The study was evaluative in nature; the data were collected using the Medication Calculation Skills Test, developed for the purposes of this study. The instrument was used to gather information on background factors and self-rated pharmacological and mathematical skills and to test actual skills in these areas.

Results concerning pharmacological skills are reported in this paper. The maximum Medication Calculation Skills Test score was 24 points. The mean score for nurses was 18.6 and that for students 16.3. Half of (50%) the students attained a score of 67% and 57% of nurses attained a score of 79%.

Nurses and students had some deficiencies in their pharmacological skills. Nurses had better pharmacological skills than students according to both self-ratings and actual performance on the test.

It is vitally important that nurses have adequate pharmacological skills to administer medicines correctly. This study showed that the Medication Calculation Skills Test seems to work well in measuring pharmacological skills, even though it needs further evaluation. Findings from this study can be used when planning the nursing curriculum and further education for Registered Nurses.