MEDICATION ADMINISTRATION IS ONE OF THE RISKIEST TASKS A NURSE EXECUTES (Maricle, Whitehead, & Rhodes, 2007). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that there are 1.5 million preventable adverse drug events each year in the United States and that patients can expect to be subjected to one medication error each day while hospitalized (2006). The most common and costly errors made by nurses include administering the wrong drug, an incorrect dose, using the wrong technique or route, omitting the medication altogether, or administering medication to the wrong patient (Maricle et al.). Teaching pharmacotherapeutics to nursing students is paramount for safe medication administration. Traditionally, pharmacotherapeutics education has revolved around lectures and memorization. Lectures are an economical and efficient way to introduce new material and to relate material to what is already known (DeYoung, 2008). An enthusiastic teacher can encourage students to learn more, provide auditory learners concise information, and clarify details from the text (Bradshaw & Lowenstein, 2007). However, lectures may fail to engage students or involve them in active learning or critical thinking (DeYoung), and new strategies are needed.
