A possible explanation for these results could be the
following. Calculations for drug percentages and infusion
rates are generally conceptually more complicated than those
for solids, oral liquids and injections. In our study, for the
drug percentages and infusion rates calculations, both
nursing students and Registered Nurses struggled with the
conceptual nature of these calculations before even getting to
the numerical aspect. On the other hand, as the calculations
for the solids, oral liquids and injections were conceptually
easier, the mistakes made here were predominantly numerical
errors. As the Registered Nurses were statistically significantly
better at numeracy, they made fewer of these errors
and were therefore statistically significantly better at
performing these calculations than the nursing students.