Medication competency of nurses according to theoretical and drug calculation online exams: A descriptive correlational study

Summary Background Medication administration is an important task of registered nurses. According to previous studies, nurses lack theoretical knowledge and drug calculation skills and knowledge-based mistakes do occur in clinical practice. Finnish health care organizations started to develop a systematic verification processes for medication competence at the end of the last decade. No studies have yet been made of nurses' theoretical knowledge and drug calculation skills according to these online exams. Objectives The aim of this study was to describe the medication competence of Finnish nurses according to theoretical and drug calculation exams. Design A descriptive correlation design was adopted. Participants and settings All nurses who participated in the online exam in three Finnish hospitals between 1.1.2009 and 31.05.2014 were selected to the study (n=2479). Methods Quantitative methods like Pearson's chi-squared tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA) with post hoc Tukey tests and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to test the existence of relationships between dependent and independent variables. Results The majority of nurses mastered the theoretical knowledge needed in medication administration, but 5% of the nurses struggled with passing the drug calculation exam. Theoretical knowledge and drug calculation skills were better in acute care units than in the other units and younger nurses achieved better results in both exams than their older colleagues. Conclusion The differences found in this study were statistically significant, but not high. Nevertheless, even the tiniest deficiency in theoretical knowledge and drug calculation skills should be focused on. It is important to identify the nurses who struggle in the exams and to plan targeted educational interventions for supporting them. The next step is to study if verification of medication competence has an effect on patient safety.