Numeracy Teaching for Undergraduate Nursing Students: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Education providers teach numeracy to undergraduate nursing students using a diverse range of approaches. Proficiency in numeracy skills is critical for patient safety; however, alarmingly, the accuracy rate of calculations by both undergraduate nurses and RNs is reported to be low. METHOD: The literature search yielded 1,180 articles published between 1994 and 2022. The assessment of the studies was reported using the PRIMSA extension for Scoping Reviews. RESULTS: Thirty-nine articles were included in the review. A diverse range of approaches were used to teach numeracy including learning theory, methods of calculation, learning environment, and examination aids. CONCLUSION: This review highlights the plethora of approaches for teaching numeracy within undergraduate nursing education. Internationally, there were limited studies on the most effective teaching approaches; therefore, developing a robust evidence-based numeracy framework would be beneficial to guide non-nursing instructors in teaching undergraduate nurses. [J Nurs Educ. 2024;63(4):218-227.].

Nurse education leaders' perspectives on the teaching of numeracy to undergraduate nursing students: A qualitative research study.

AIM: The aim of this study was to explore the perspectives of nurse education leaders of Australian undergraduate nursing degrees on the teaching of nursing numeracy and how the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Accreditation Standards influence curriculum development. BACKGROUND: Nurses' numeracy skills are reportedly deficient worldwide, posing a significant threat to patient safety. This is an issue for the education of undergraduate nurses and thus for the nursing profession. The international literature reveals a heterogeneous blend of learning approaches, but it is unclear which approaches are best suited to improve the numerical calculation ability of nurses. In the Australian context, there are no accreditation standards referring to numeracy, therefore, it is important to discover how nurse education leaders' design and implement the teaching of numeracy. DESIGN: A qualitative approach using thematic analysis was employed. The setting was Australian universities that delivered an accredited undergraduate nursing degree leading to nursing registration. METHODS: Purposive sampling was used to recruit 17 nurse education leaders of Australian undergraduate nursing degrees. Individual, semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted between November 2022 and January 2023. Interview data were analysed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) six phases of thematic analysis. FINDINGS: Five themes emerged from the analysis: (i) indistinct accreditation standards, (ii) teaching basic maths for clinical applications, (iii) a range of bespoke teaching approaches (iv) we're nurses, not numeracy educators and (v) assumptions about an unprepared cohort. CONCLUSION: The leaders of undergraduate nursing degrees assumed that nursing students would have proficiency in numeracy skills on entering university. However, this was not the case, hence numeracy was an essential skill that needed to be taught to the undergraduate nursing students. Lack of direction from the accreditation council led to the existence of various curricula and an array of approaches to teaching numeracy and medication calculations, which challenged nursing academics who did not consider themselves numeracy educators. This study makes a novel contribution to knowledge, teaching and practice in undergraduate nursing numeracy curricula.