Where the idea came from

I enjoy tackling a good problem. When Sarah started her graduate entry registered nursing course @Flinders University she told me about the significant numbers of her fellow students who were concerned about and having trouble with drug calculation exams. These routine calculations need to be done correctly to ensure patients get the correct dosages of prescribed medication.

Reasonably, universities expect students to be able to pass the exams with 100 percent correct responses. Unfortunately, the math education routinely lets students down and leaves them with low confidence in their ability to pass. Research (Hodge, 2002) suggests that computers can effectively assist the third of nursing students who struggle to learn dose calculations and improve performance on exams.

What better platform for this type of practice than mobiles?

So with Sarah in school full time, I decided to take some time off my day job to put together Dose Coach, a dose calculation practice app designed to improve confidence with realistic practice problems and easy to understand advice.

This app is not designed to do the calculations, but rather to help students gain confidence in the mental arithmetic required to administer oral, parenteral and intravenous drip problems.