title: Safety in numbers 7: Veni, vidi, duci: a grounded theory evaluation of nursing students' medication dosage calculation problem-solving schemata construction.
abstract: This paper evaluates nursing students' transition through schemata construction and competence development in medication dosage calculation problem-solving (MDC-PS). We advance a grounded theory from interview data that reflects the experiences and perceptions of two groups of undergraduate pre-registration nursing students: eight students exposed to a prototype authentic MDC-PS environment and didactic transmission methods of education and 15 final year students exposed to the safeMedicate authentic MDC-PS environment. We advance a theory of how classroom-based 'chalk and talk' didactic transmission environments offered multiple barriers to accurate MDC-PS schemata construction among novice students. While conversely it was universally perceived by all students that authentic learning and assessment environments enabled MDC-PS schemata construction through facilitating: 'seeing' the authentic features of medication dosage problems; context-based and situational learning; learning within a scaffolded environment that supported construction of cognitive links between the concrete world of clinical MDC-PS and the abstract world of mathematics; and confidence-building in their cognitive and functional competence ability. Drawing on the principle of veni, vidi, duci (I came, I saw, I calculated), we combined the two sets of evaluations to offer a grounded theoretical basis for schemata construction and competence development within this critical domain of professional practice.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health, Sport & Science, University of Glamorgan, United Kingdom. kweeks@glam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Keith W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Weeks
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Higginson
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Clochesy
authors.forename: Diana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Coben
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D054796:Drug Dosage Calculations; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000379:methods*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009742:Nursing Theory; D011340:Problem Solving; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult