Death of a Simulated Patient: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Dosage Calculations

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Patient Safety
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Medication dosage calculation errors pose a significant risk to patient safety.
• Traditional teaching methods may not adequately prepare nursing students for real-world dosage calculation challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate an innovative, simulated patient-based teaching strategy for undergraduate nursing students.
• To enhance students' ability to accurately calculate medication dosages and identify critical errors.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a simulated patient scenario in a nursing skills laboratory.
• Students calculated medication dosages for a simulated patient with three distinct errors.
• Students determined the most likely error contributing to the simulated patient's death.

Main Results:

• High levels of student engagement were observed during the activity.
• Faculty noted learning in both cognitive and affective domains.
• The strategy provided a safe environment for students to practice and evaluate dosage calculations.

Conclusions:

• This creative teaching strategy effectively engaged students in learning dosage calculations.
• The simulation fostered critical thinking and evaluation of medication errors.
• The approach supports the development of safer medication administration practices among future nurses.