title: Web course on medication administration strengthens nursing students' competence prior to graduation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nursing students' competence has been found inadequate in mastering of pharmacotherapy regulations and prescriptions, pharmacology, medical calculations, fractional and decimal numbers, and mathematics on the whole.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The study investigated the efficacy of an additional medication administration web course in increasing nursing students' self-evaluated competence on medication administration.
  
  
  METHODS
  Finnish nursing students self-evaluated their medication administration competence before and after the web-based medication course. Design was quasi-experimental.
  
  
  METHODS
  244 students answered the questionnaire before and 192 after the web course.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online self-evaluation questionnaire was developed to measure students' competence on basic pharmacotherapy, intravenous medication and infusion, blood transfusion and epidural medication. The data was analysed with SPSS 18.0 software using descriptive analyses and comparing sum variables with Man-Whitney U-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The medication administration web course, which took 8 h on average, significantly improved self-evaluated competence of nursing students in all the fields. Prior to the education most defects were found in matters concerning compatibility and adverse effects of pharmaceuticals and solutions and in epidural medication competency. The education strengthened all these competencies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is necessary to revise medication administration before graduation and web-based learning can be used in it.
authors: Tampere University of Applied Sciences, School of Health Care, Kuntokatu 3, 33520 Tampere, Finland. Electronic address: sari.mettiainen@tamk.fi.
authors: Sari
authors: S
authors: Mettiäinen
authors: Pirkanmaa Hospital District, PL 2000, 33521 Tampere, Finland. Electronic address: katja.luojus@pshp.fi.
authors: Katja
authors: K
authors: Luojus
authors: Tavastia Education Consortium, Hattelmalantie 8, 13100 Hämeenlinna, Finland. Electronic address: satu.salminen@kktavasti.fi.
authors: Satu
authors: S
authors: Salminen
authors: University of Tampere, School of Health Sciences, Nursing Science, University of Tampere, 33014 Tampere, Finland. Electronic address: meeri.koivula@uta.fi.
authors: Meeri
authors: M
authors: Koivula
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D003194:Computer-Assisted Instruction / Q000379:methods*; D003479:Curriculum; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000451:nursing*; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations
keywords: Education; Medication administration competence; Nursing; Nursing student; Web course