Enhancing Numeracy Skills in Final Year Nurses

The study conducted by Ramjan et al., (2014) aimed to investigate the effectiveness of teaching interventions for medication calculation among final year nursing students. The study found that hands-on workshops and simulated scenarios were effective in enhancing numeracy skills, while traditional testing methods were less favored. The research concluded that intensive and contextualized numeracy teaching and assessment is more suitable for nurses compared to traditional testing methods. The strength of the study lies in its use of simple language, tabular representation of findings, and inclusion of various teaching strategies. However, the study's limitations include the use of Likert scales with too many options, which may have affected the validity of the study.

0Running head: RESEARCH CRITIQUE
Research critique
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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RESEARCH CRITIQUE
Introduction and Literature review:
1. By reviewing the whole article, it has been found that no obscure phrase is present and
key concepts related to the research problem has been adequaetely defined by the
researcher. The research study by Ramjan et al., (2014) clearly mentions the purpose of
research, which is to identify strategies that may assist nurse in increasing their
competency in drug calculation teaching and assessment method. All types of teaching
methods has been clearly explained by means of tabular representation.
2. The usefulness of this research is high because it is a newly published article published in
the year 2014, which might give new insights to improve skills and competencies of
registered nurse. The reliability of the data is high because it is a recent work that has
considered recent approaches and teaching methods to improve the competency of nurse
in drug calculation.
3. The key concepts related to factors that might affect the nurse’s ability to conduct
mathematical calculation for drug dose has been discussed. This was dependent on
experience, age, practice experience and age of nurses. Hence, the researcher highlighted
the research problem, which is the rise in number of preventable medication errors, and
need to prepare nurses to tailor drug calculation teaching. Therefore, the main concept
behind the research is adequately explained.
4. The motivation for the research is understood from the background information related to
the topic that the researcher has discussed in the introduction section. The importance of
nurses competency in drug calculation was seen because patient’s lives depend on those
calculation. Any error in medication dose can cost lives of patients too.
Research design and data analysis:
5. Mixed method research approach was used to collect data from 327 female and 63 male
nursing students of final year. The same size is adequate for giving reliable results.
Secondly, the strategy to select only final year nursing students in the study reveals
purposive sampling approach was taken to include participants in the study. Use of

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purposive sampling method is a good step by the researcher because it ensures fulfillment
of the goal of research and getting reliable data from those people who experience the
issue on a daily basis. It increased the generalizability and reliability of the study too
(Etikan, Musa, & Alkassim, 2016). Secondly, many teaching interventions were provided
to improve the competency of the researcher. Two surveys were done to collect data-first
was conducted during the tutorial classes and other was done after hands-on workshop.
The use of both Likert scale and qualitative comment in the survey question is
commendable because it will remove all possibilities of getting ambiguous data. The
researcher also followed the ethical consideration that is required before conducting the
research which further increased the viability of the research article.
6.
The use of SPSS tool and use of excel spreadsheet for manually analyzing theme gives an
indication that data analysis is rigorous enough to effectively analyze both qualitative and
quantitative data. The illustration of the TGP flow chart of process and intervention also makes
all the research method clear. This method is considered reliable to get all answers to the
research question. The same cross sectional mixed method survey design was also applied by
Fleming, Brady & Malone, (2014) to investigate nurse’s competency in drug calculation.
However, in case of randomized controlled study, multiple choice test related drug dose
calculation was considered to evaluate competency of the nurse (Simonsen et al., 2014).
In the study by Ramjan et al., (2014), the main findings was that association was found
between nurse’s numeracy skills performance and the remedial support sessions. Secondly, the
evaluation of nurse’s perception regarding tailored intervention revealed that nurses found the
online practice quiz useful because of its clinical relevance. On the whole, it can be stated that
results presented was relevant to the research question and the table based response for statistical
and qualitative numeracy skills performance promoted analysis of the data in much lesser time.
While comparing the above article with other two article related to the same topic, it has
been found that the first article gave more extensive numerical data related to scores of nurse in
metric conversion, tablet dosage, fluid dosage, drip rate and total drug test scores (Fleming,
Brady & Malone, 2014). Although this is advantageous for evaluating the effectiveness of drug
test for improving the competency of nurse, however the evaluation of numerous other

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interventions in Ramjan et al., (2014) has a much wider scope and credibility too. The scope of
the study findings by Simonsen et al., (2014) is also narrow as it focused only on classroom
learning and e-learning and not other types of teaching intervention.
Discussion and recommendation:
7.
The discussion section of the study Ramjan et al., (2014) adequately explained how the
research has given answer to the research aim. Positive response was given by staff regarding
recent teaching intervention for medication calculation. Exposure to simulated scenarios
enhanced their competency and confidence on drug calculation. The positive comment regarding
hands-on workshop also revealed its effectiveness of visual learning. Therefore, the data
obtained from the study was justified by the above explanation.
Ramjan et al., (2014) finally concluded the research by giving the recommendation that
intensive and contextualized numeracy teaching and assessment is more favoured by nurse now
compared to traditional testing methods. More emphasis was given on contextualizing the
teaching and learning process. However, the researcher did not pointed out to any areas of future
research. Fleming, Brady & Malone, (2014) also did not identified any future research area,
however it gave the recommendation that national guideline on level and assessment of
pharmacological content and drug calculation is necessary to improve medication calculation in
nurses. The research by Simonsen et al., (2014) concluded that the result did not gave any
outcome of practical significance. Hence, the reliability of the study was low and no future areas
of research was also stated despite limitation in the study.
8. The strength of the study is the use of simple language and no complicated jargons. It is
easy for any reviewer to effectively understand all the concepts related to the study.
Secondly, tabular representation of study finding promotes easy analysis of the research
outcome.
9. Ramjan et al., (2014) presented the research data by means of tabular representation. All
the tables were systematically arranges with headings and key research variables.
However, the flowchart regarding the research process and intervention was little
complex and it took time to interpret them.

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10. The strength of the study is that the researcher has used include all types of teaching
strategies to understand the effectiveness of research. This has helped to validate the
importance visually enhanced hands-on intervention in improving numeracy learning in
final year nurses. The other two studies and many other studies have not considered the
evolving nature of learning methods while conducting the study (Pierce et al., 2008). The
key weakness in the research is the Likert scale was used for the survey, however it has
too many options which limited the validity of the study (Artino et al., 2011).
11. The main weakness of the research by Ramjan et al., (2014) was too many option in
Likert scales and this could have been addressed by taking lesser options or using
validated survey tools.
12. The work by Ramjan et al., (2014) is a high quality research article because he has
reported about the research process in a very subjective manner.
13. No personal comments has been made and all justification or arguments raised has been
backed up by relevant research articles. Hence, no biasness in viewpoint is seen.
14. The quality of Ramjan et al., (2014) is also understood from proper reference given for
each citation. Link was provided in each citation and this helped in easily navigating to
the research article from which the arguments were raised.
15. The credibility of the author is further understood from their profession designation. For
instance, Ramjan is a staff member in the School of Nursing and she is committed to
educational research particularly in numeracy. This means she has enough experience in
research works related to the teaching strategies in nursing demonstrating the validity of
her research work (Doctor Lucie Ramjan 2017).

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Reference
Artino Jr, A. R., Gehlbach, H., & Durning, S. J. (2011). AM last page: avoiding five common
pitfalls of survey design. Academic Medicine, 86(10), 1327.
Doctor Lucie Ramjan. (2017). Westernsydney.edu.au. [online] Available at:
https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/staff_profiles/uws_profiles/doctor_lucie_ramjan
[Accessed 11 Sep. 2017].
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1-4.
Fleming, S., Brady, A. M., & Malone, A. M. (2014). An evaluation of the drug calculation skills
of registered nurses. Nurse education in practice, 14(1), 55-61.
Pierce, R. U., Steinle, V. A., Stacey, K. C., & Widjaja, W. (2008). Understanding decimal
numbers: a foundation for correct calculations. International journal of nursing education
scholarship, 5(1), 1-15.
Ramjan, L. M., Stewart, L., Salamonson, Y., Morris, M. M., Armstrong, L., Sanchez, P., &
Flannery, L. (2014). Identifying strategies to assist final semester nursing students to
develop numeracy skills: a mixed methods study. Nurse education today, 34(3), 405-412.
Simonsen, B. O., Daehlin, G. K., Johansson, I., & Farup, P. G. (2014). Improvement of drug
dose calculations by classroom teaching or e-learning: a randomised controlled trial in
nurses. BMJ open, 4(10), e006025.