| Over 8 million families in the United States have reported that at least one member has sustained a severe health problem as a result of a medication or medical error. Researchers have discovered the most common type of error is the administration of an improper dose of medication. The ability to perform mathematical calculations is a competency skill that is essential while administering pharmacological agents to patients. Unfortunately, nursing students' lack of mathematical proficiency and self-efficacy continues to be shown in today's nursing programs. The focus of this study was to look at the effectiveness of an interactive multimedia-learning tool on 96-undergraduate nursing students' math test and self-efficacy scores and student satisfaction at two northern California universities.; An experimental factorial design involving two independent variables, treatment level and school, and five dependent variables: post- and follow-up treatment math achievement and self-efficacy scores, as well as satisfaction outcomes. Covariate data included pre-treatment math and self-efficacy scores. There were four randomly assigned treatment groups in the study: text only, text and image, multimedia, and interactive multimedia. The Math Self-Efficacy Scale (MSES) and a pre-math exam were administered to students consenting to participate in the study. Directly following the treatment the students completed the MSES and a post-treatment math exam. Two weeks later the students completed the MSES and a follow-up treatment math exam. A short student satisfaction survey was administered at the end of the study.; The outcomes derived from the study indicated no significant changes in math test or math self-efficacy scores between the treatment groups at both universities. However, the student satisfaction scores indicated that the interactive multimedia group rated their learning method higher than the other groups (though not statistically significantly). The limitations to the study were the treatment time, small sample size, and lack of qualitative data. This study's results are consistent with other interactive multimedia learning outcomes. The interactive multimedia tool had no negative effect on student learning and provided a convenient and accommodating method of instruction for nursing students. |
