Triangle technique: An effective tool for improving nursing students’ ability to calculate safe pediatric medication dosages

Abstract

Calculating the correct medication dosage for pediatric patients can be difficult for nurses to determine, as the pediatric dose is typically a small fraction of the adult dosage. This study aims to examine the impact of the Triangle Technique on the ability of nursing students to calculate low and high safe dosage ranges in children. To evaluate how this educational tool could improve a nurse’s skill in this area, a quasi-experimental pre-/post-test research design was employed including one hundred fifty-eight third-year nursing students. The Pediatric Medication Administration Form and Pediatric Safe Dosage Calculations Quiz (PSDCQ) were used to measure the effectiveness of the Triangle Technique. While <50% ( n < 79) of students gave correct answers to each question in PSDCQ before this intervention, all of the participants ( N = 158, 100%) gave a correct answer to one question, and >89.2% ( n > 141) of the students correctly answered the other four questions of PSDCQ. The change in scores (pre-PSDCQ median score = 0, IQR = 60; post-PSDCQ median score = 100, IQR = 0) post-intervention was statistically significant (z = 10.633, p ≤ .001), indicating that this teaching technique was effective for improving students’ ability to calculate pediatric safe dose ranges. Nursing students ( n = 144, 91.1%) were satisfied with using Triangle Technique. Using the Triangle Technique can increase nursing students’ understanding of how they calculate safe pediatric medication dosages.