AN EVALUATION OF THE MATHEMATICAL SKILLS OF BEGINNER SWEDISH NURSING STUDENTS

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Abstract
During the autunm of 1989 a mathematical test was given to 997 stud ents attending a 2-year pro gram of nursing education and 188 students on a 3-year program of nursi.ng education. The rest consisted of 65 items. Apart from the four fundamental rules of arithmetics, the rest included calculations concerning fractions, scales, transformation of units and percentages. The level of the rest was comparable to the 9-year compulsory school curriculum. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether nursing students had adequate knowledge and skills in mathematics when they started their studies. The result showed that approxinuitely 50% of the items were solved correctly. The nursing students attending a 3-year nursing education program had higher average scores than the group attending a 2-year education program. The result is discussed in connection with medical errors. The Swedish Medical Responsibility Board supervize.s nurses' professional work and penalizes those who give wrong doses of drugs to patients.

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