Constructivist philosophy and nursing student medication calculations

Prelicensure nursing students often have difficulty performing medication calculations (MCs). Faculty at one baccalaureate nursing program wanted to use nursing theory to guide the development of a teaching-learning approach related to MC's. Finding little theory related to the topic of MCs, a constructivist-based teaching-learning approach was used instead. The purpose of the study was to assess whether nursing students who received an MC review class that used a teaching-learning approach based on constructivist philosophy had better results on an MC examination than students who received their review via traditional teaching-learning methods. The study participants consisted of two cohorts of first-semester junior-level nursing students from one university-based school of nursing in the Midwestern United States. The results indicated that students in the simulation review class had higher mean scores on an MC examination than students who received their review via more traditional means. Teaching-learning strategies related to MCs based on constructivist philosophy have the potential to improve student learning outcomes, but more research is needed before middle-range theory related to this critically important area of nursing education can be developed.