Donna Meyer: Good afternoon, everyone. We're just letting everybody join, and we're really excited to hear see everyone today. So just give us a few minutes, because we're going to get started shortly as we let people join the webinar. I know this is a busy time. Semester's just starting for many of you. So we appreciate you being here today and hope you enjoy the session that we have. And so we'll just give it another couple minutes as people join. And feel free to put things in the chat, say hi and everything if you'd like. We'd love the interaction, where you're from. It's always fun to see where everybody is from across the country, all kinds of places, that's for sure. I was on a call earlier today with somebody in North Carolina, and they were getting a lot of rain. So I hope everyone is either dealing with rain or heat. It's just been kind of a crazy weather. So I think we will go ahead and kick this off. So welcome to the August 2026 Elevate series, and today we're going to be talking about Beyond the Formula: Advancing Medication Competency Across the Nursing Curriculum.
Donna Meyer: I want to welcome those of you who have attended our Elevate series in the past, and if you're new to our Elevate series, a very special welcome. I'm Donna Meyer, Level Up RN Nursing Education advisor, and with me today is Kelley Larson, who is the Vice President of Nursing Solutions, and Angelina Guzman, who's our Senior Manager of Learning Success. Together we're here to help support the nursing programs across this country, to help make things a little easier for you with your students, and provide exceptional resources. We have been doing a lot of work at Level Up RN, and the next couple months you're going to see some exciting new things come out.
Donna Meyer: So we're going to get started and just briefly mention a couple things for Zoom housekeeping. Again, we really do encourage you to ask questions in the chat, make comments in the chat. That's what makes this Elevate series so engaging. We also have Q&A, and we really want to have that active participation. So we started the Elevate series in January, and we've been having a wonderful time. Kelley and I really enjoy doing this, but most especially because we always have nursing educators with us to actually do the presentation. And I'll be introducing those individuals to you a little bit later.
Donna Meyer: So now we're going to briefly talk about the purpose of the Elevate series it's to bring all of you together, because we all know we have some-- so many of the same issues. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Kelley, our Vice President, Nursing Solutions. Kelley?
Kelley Larson: Sure. Thank you, Ms. Donna. Welcome, everyone. We're super excited to have you with us today. Patrick, if you can advance the slide. Thank you. So as Donna had mentioned, we've been doing this monthly Elevate series, so we're so excited to have all of you join us. And so, Patrick, if we move to the next slide. Perfect. One back. Thank you. So today, as Donna had mentioned, we're going to be talking about a topic that really impacts, I'm sure, everyone on the call, dosage calculation. And so today what we're going to talk about is really looking at current medication calculation practices and challenges. We're also then going to jump into some strategies that help build medication competency. We'll talk about some active learning strategies that really help drive that clinical application. And then we'll talk about some tools and resources for applying a framework for curriculum integration and student support. And then we'll end our time a bit later today sharing some of the resources that we offer in Level Up RN. These resources are free to nurse educators, so we'll talk just a little bit more about that in a bit.
Kelley Larson: Perfect. Next slide, please. So to get us started, we definitely want to hear from each of you. And so we're going to go ahead and launch our first audience poll question. So feel free to participate. And really, when we think about that first question, you'll see-- it's asking, "How is medication calculation currently taught within your nursing program?" So feel free to answer along. So we're getting some great, great responses from you guys. We're seeing a lot of variation.
Kelley Larson: Perfect. We've got a couple more folks weighing in.
[silence]
Kelley Larson: Awesome. And it looks like we've got a good amount of folks weighing in. We've got about 75% of the group that's answered. And so let's go ahead, and we can-- if everybody's got a chance to jump in. I see a couple more answers coming in.
Angelina Guzman: You should do a dramatic countdown, Kelly.
Kelley Larson: Dramatic countdown. Perfect. I think we can wrap the poll up and let's see our results. Perfect.
Angelina Guzman: Can you see that?
Kelley Larson: Yeah.
Donna Meyer: Yes.
Angelina Guzman: 80% participation.
Donna Meyer: So it looks integrated throughout the curriculum is the first-- the main answer. And the next thing-- which aspects of dosage calculation presents the greatest challenge? Single choice, foundational math and calculation skills, 42%. Yes. Okay.
Kelley Larson: Awesome.
Donna Meyer: There we go.
Kelley Larson: So Patrick, can we move to the next slide? Perfect. So with that, Donna's going to introduce our panelists today.
Donna Meyer: Yes. I am so thrilled to have our two panelists today. Amazing nurse educators. One is from California and one from Texas. So Larry Manalo, who is a professor of nursing, and the RN program director from Allen Hancock College. You may recognize Larry. He's presented for us before. We're thrilled to have him back. He has lots of great experience, and he's especially interested in faculty mentoring culture curriculum development and educational technology. So welcome, Larry, and thank you for joining us today.
Donna Meyer: Also is Heather Breaux, who's the Allied Health Department Chair at Lamar State College in Port Arthur, Texas. And Heather has also been with us before, and she is a nurse educator and program leader with experience in curriculum development integration. Obviously, she's got great experience in medication administration, clinical judgment, and dosage calculation, which is why she's here, because she's extremely interested in that. So welcome, Heather, and thank you both for joining us today.
Donna Meyer: So next slide, please. What we like to do with our panelists is ask them different different questions. Each of them respond. And you all can also respond in the chat, add your concerns your opportunities, your challenges, whatever you'd like to say, and we'll try to look at some of those chats as we're talking to our presenters. So I'm going to start with question one. And I'm going to start with Heather. How is medication calculation integrated throughout your curriculum?
Heather Breaux: So we integrate medication calculation throughout the entire program. So we have three levels at the college. And so in level one, they have a test. We see where they are. And then we add on to that in level two and three. It's also in skills as well as in simulation.
Donna Meyer: Larry, what about you? What do you do in your program?
Larry Manalo: Hey. We integrate dose calculation throughout the curriculum as well. But we actually start off with a pharmacology course that actually combines drugs and dose calculations. And we have to be very careful about emphasizing one, the dosage calculation in a course on information about medications. And then we move on to a variety of skills courses in med admin. We have IV therapy skills in the RN program and advanced IV skills in the RN program as well, with continuous drips and calculation for other types of medications.
Donna Meyer: Wonderful. So we have some comments in the chat already, which is wonderful, so keep them coming. Many think individuals have said that students obviously struggle with dimensional analysis, also the conversions. Many of you have mentioned that you do integrate in the curriculum throughout. And let's see. I was going to see one more. Okay. We have a pre-nursing foundations course where dosage calculations is introduced. Dosage calculations are integrated throughout the curriculum with a certain percentage of math on each exam. Wonderful. We stopped giving the high-stakes test in math. So, excellent comments, really wonderful.
Donna Meyer: But it does seem to be a theme that integration throughout the curriculum is a really important thing. And we're going to show you something later with the dosage calculation course that shows you how you can integrate all of these different types of methods. So next slide, please, on question two. What teaching strategies have improved student confidence? Because I think there's a lot of anxiety with math. So Larry, how about I start with you?
Larry Manalo: Well, we have removed the high-stakes, as I mentioned, as I saw somebody comment on that one. We removed the high-stakes test for dose calculation because, again, it just adds a little bit more anxiety. We also have multiple options for them, multiple opportunities for them to take the test and to meet the competency benchmark that we require them. And if they don't, we have a built-in remediation process for them. We work with them one-on-one as needed. And we try to reinforce instruction from one course to another to another to another because all of our faculty kind of talk about what the struggles of the students are.
Donna Meyer: Okay. Heather, how would you like to respond?
Heather Breaux: Well, we offer frequent practice. So, medication calculation problems on every unit exam. We incorporate that in our classroom exercises, so they do math there. We make sure that they are practicing as much math as possible in all aspects of the program. So in simulation, they'll again have some math so they can realize, "Hey, this is how you calculate an IV problem." In the skills, you may have some math. So to improve their confidence, it's just giving them frequent problems and chances to work out the problems where it's not on-- we don't do high-stakes. So they will understand that, "Hey, you're going to see something like this over and over again." And the more times we're able to allow them to practice that, the more confident they get on those problems.
Donna Meyer: Great. And some of the things that both of you just said, people are responding to. There's a comment, "We teach dosage calc in the first semester, but it's incorporated. We administer a non-weighted exam to provide students with a success plan." So again, trying to make them successful and not be fearful of it. The success plan includes workshops and mandatory tutoring. And so there's some really great comments. I hope everybody is looking at it. We have math in every lab course. They have to have a 90%. Repetition and practice. One comment here was, "What do area facilities do for the dosage calc competency upon hire?" So maybe you might want to respond in chat to see. So one here said, "One of our area facilities has an annual math competency test for its employees." So there's some, again, wonderful types of things. So I think we'll move on to question three. How do you connect medication calculation to clinical judgment? So Heather, I think I'll start with you.
Heather Breaux: So we don't just teach medication calculation as just a math skill. How we connect it is we have students assess a patient, they interpret a medication order, they perform the calculation, and then they determine if it's safe and appropriate. So this is throughout simulation, their clinical experiences. So we don't want them to just think of math as we take a math test and it's a one-time thing. They have to understand that this is life or death for some of these patients that they'll see. So that's how we put it into clinical judgment.
Donna Meyer: Larry?
Larry Manalo: We have departed from giving them a lot of practice math exercises that are very similar. So we flip. We make it more of a word problem rather than a math problem. And then after that, we level it off with developing context to it by creating case studies that has something to do with-- something to do with administering the medication and some of the safety checks regarding dose calculations, regarding the doses of the medications that they're about to give. And then, of course, we attach the care technologies with it as they go, as they move from one level to the other, so that they could now interpret what calculation they have to do, as well as how it is applied into care technologies like IV pumps. Because I think those are the things that they need to continuously connect, because there's really a lot of gaps that we are identifying with regards to translating those calculations into practice.
Donna Meyer: Great. A couple of comments here. One, Sonia said that they do have a benchmark exam, and it goes an increasing depending on the level of the program. I like the comment, too, here from Melissa, that about putting the dosage into their simulation and verifying those answers with another nurse. So, again, just working. I think that's great. Vignettes and case studies, not just making math problems. So yes, that clinical judgment piece. I remember when I was teaching and a student one time drew up insulin, and it was obviously not the correct dose, and I was just like, "Just think about this amount that you have just drawn up." And just teaching people that they have to really-- the students, how they have to really clinically think and do that critical judgment, critical thinking, clinical judgment piece. Does this dose even make sense? If you have any question, you need to verify it with another nurse. I think it's so important. Of course, with insulin, we do that, but really instilling in the students so they're not so fearful that everybody has somewhat of a fear of the drug calculation and to making them feel more comfortable with it.
Donna Meyer: So moving on to four, question four. So Larry, how do you identify and support struggling students early so that you can help them and so they're not so far along in the program?
Larry Manalo: Good question. And we have done early screening, which is at the beginning of pharmacology, which is their first nursing class. We would do basic math, and then when they enter the LBN, they would do dose calculation competency using oral and IM, parenteral IM medications. And then when they go to the RN level, it's a combination of both math and actual dose calculation and maybe some IV calculations as well. So we level it off, but we screen them early in the semester, and we frame it in such a way that this is, for you guys, to know where you are at rather than us trying to get rid of you.
Donna Meyer: Oh, I like that. Yeah, I think they do sometimes think we're trying to get rid of them. We don't want to get rid of them. We need them. [laughter] There was a question back for you Larry, I was going to ask. It said that you had mentioned gaps identified from school to practice. Could you expand on those gaps before we go further?
Larry Manalo: The way the students calculate medications seems to require a little bit more time compared to the sense of urgency that they experience when they're about to give medications. And then they also notice that-- you also notice that there is what they call unit dosing in the different settings to a point that it is the dose calculation piece is actually just skipped because they are confident that they are the same numbers. So all I can say is how to-- we have to establish that they still need to verify what they're seeing and what is the way to verify it and calculate it. So those realities are still in existence for the very simple reason that sometimes we didn't factor in what we're teaching translates into practice.
Donna Meyer: Right. And there's another comment that students believe they will not have to use this skill due to the pharmacy labeling the dose and the pump and having everything ready. But yeah, so I do think that that's extremely true. So Heather, would you please respond to how do you identify and support struggling students early
Heather Breaux: So how we identify our students by, of course, they take a math test at the beginning of every semester. And then we put math on every test. And then if they have labs and simulation, if we see a student struggling with math, we offer one-on-one support. We do have a retention and remediation specialist who offers tutorials just on math. So she will go in and just focus on whether it be dimensional analysis, which is what a lot of our students use. And so they have this hour-long tutorial that she does frequently with students who are struggling with math. We offer lots of remediation. It's lots and lots of remediation to help them not be so nervous about dimensional analysis or any type of math problem.
Donna Meyer: Wonderful. One of the comments a few minutes ago was case studies, and the individual just wrote the word case studies. And I think case studies really can be helpful in math because not only are you working with math, especially in a simulation setting where you can really put this all together. Let's figure out the dose. This person's in pain and what's their pain scale, and what other signs are they showing of pain? So it can really be a great way to integrate using case studies as well as the dosage calc. All right, question five. Moving right along here. I love this one. I'm anxious to hear the answers here. If you could redesign medication instruction, what would you change? Heather, how about you?
Heather Breaux: Focus less on memorization and more on the clinical reasoning. Because of the fact that, like you said earlier, students think that, "Hey, if I memorize this, then I'll never see it again." Well, you are going to see it again. It's not about I memorize how to complete a problem. It's about now the pharmacy has stunned up insulin that says I'm given 700 units, and you give 700 units. You got to think about, is that a safe dose? It's not just about I know how to complete the problem. I know how to complete the problem and say, is this a safe dose? So less memorization and more on thinking about how safe it is to give something. Is this the correct thing to do?
Donna Meyer: Right. That clinical judgment. A couple of comments before I asked Larry this question. Some individuals have said they started using some memory games, though, to learn the conversions because obviously you still need to know those conversions. So trying to make it somewhat fun with the memory games is a great question or comment. Also, it's this individual, Mirian, said, "We teach dimensional analysis. It is the foundation for understanding to set up complex." People wanted to know, are you using multiple methods to teach in your program or just dimensional analysis? If you want to maybe put some answers in the chat so people can see that might be a good question just to kind of think about. Yeah, so I'm just looking. Looks like teach dimensional analysis. We get a lot. So okay. So moving along. Larry, if you could redesign medication instruction, what would you change?
Larry Manalo: Actually, we are working on it right now as we speak. We recruited the Level Up RN resources for this, and we wanted a common language for all the faculty because what we have found is that dosage calculation, the way we teach it, varies from the level of comfort of the instructor or how we do things. We generally tend to teach how we do things instead of getting the students to understand how they understand things. And we also found that word problems are a struggle with English language learners because when you check their TEAS score, their math scores are fine. It's the language that's actually dipping a little bit. So with that in mind, they know the math. It's just how the numbers are inserted into a situation that's a little bit of a struggle, so you may have to work on that one. So it is something that we are leaning more about individual assessment of students rather than mandating or requiring everybody to do it one way, because we tried that before and we have quite a number of fallouts from that one, because they really don't process it that way.
Donna Meyer: Right. And just so everybody can see these, people have been responding. Lots do use dimensional analysis, multiple. Some just said, "We let students learn what method works for them the best to, obviously, get that correct answer is what we want." So lots of different comments. So I encourage you to look at the chat as we're continuing to talk about this. Okay, question six, moving along here. Do you have a dosage calc exam students must pass? I think we kind of mentioned that, but I'm going to go ahead and ask specifically, and what is the passing requirement? We've been talking-- that kind of was answered earlier, but let's just quickly go back and have both of you answer that. Larry?
Larry Manalo: We started off with 85%. We used to have 97%, but we have to go lower with that one because it almost seems to be unattainable. So we moved it down to 85, but they have two attempts, and on the second attempt, they could go as low as 80%. And what we have found is that as long as you do-- as long as we did the screening early, it brings their attention to work on it rather than doing it late and then just waiting for them to flounder the rest of the semester.
Donna Meyer: Heather?
Heather Breaux: Excuse me, we do have a progressive calculation exam, so they have to pass in level one a 90%, in level two a 95%, and then in level three, it's 100%. And this is before they can pass any medications in our clinical settings. We do have-- they have multiple attempts along with remediation after each attempt, and as long as we were remediating them and we haven't had any issues after remediation. And we do the progressive just so the dosage gets harder and harder. By level three, they're in what we call preceptorship, so they're a lot of times in our ICUs and ERs, so that's why we want 100% in level three.
Donna Meyer: Great. A couple comments in the chat, and one, Melissa, I might ask you to put more in the chat. You said, "We have a policy on remediation," so people might be interested in that as far as what that remediation is. And a lot of people have been putting their different scores that they have to have on, and one comment that was a little earlier, when we were talking about case studies, I thought that was really interesting. They said that that's how they really get at the math, is by using case studies. So that seems like a really great idea. So, okay.
Donna Meyer: Melissa said about the remediation, they get their first score, but they remediate two attempts. We meet with them to make sure they're aware of their mistakes. So they're usually able to pass the first retake. And one question, again, we might ask maybe our panelists, if you could respond on the spot here to this question. What do you all find to be the best way to remediate students? Larry, what do you think?
Larry Manalo: Just talking to them and see where they are at with understanding the word problem, calculating math problems, and everything else. And I even have found that they have other ways of calculating it that some form of abbreviated dimensional analysis. And I said, "Oh, okay. I didn't even realize that ." So in other words, it actually puts the instructor to be more open to ways of doing those calculations in so many different ways. Because again, the point of it is, you get the same answer. How you get there may slightly differ depending on how well they could do math. So we still do individualized instructions for students.
Larry Manalo: And if we find a group of students that share the same thing, we found that peer teaching actually works as well.
Donna Meyer: Yeah, there was a comment. One, working with them side by side at the whiteboard, whether it be faculty or two students, and the faculty member just kind of being there to help them, could be another powerful way. I think really working through the whiteboard still works sometimes, I would say, with people. And one, a person, a dosage calc workshop, one-on-one repetition working through. Heather, what do you think as far as the remediation piece?
Heather Breaux: I think sitting down with the student and actually having them work out the problem, so you can kind of see where they're failing in those steps. Sometimes it's that I see students will try to do a little bit of this type and a little bit of this, and we tell them, "Stick to one thing, learn one thing," instead of, "I'm going to do D over H times Q for this one, and I'll do dimensional analysis on this." Stick to one thing, and then that usually helps them. But really just finding out where they're going wrong and helping them that way. Really sitting at the whiteboard, let's work out some problems. That helped with remediation for us.
Donna Meyer: Great. Well, this has just been great. Consistency in the method is key. Yeah. So many great comments. Thank you all for sharing. It really makes it fun, I think, to hear what everybody's doing. Okay. Well, we're on to our final question. Can you provide some examples of active learning strategies you've used with dosage calculations? And actually, I think, Patrick, if you go to the next slide, maybe there's some, I think. Yes. So there's a couple that each of our presenters are going to talk about. And if you have others to add, Larry first. We're going to start with Larry, and he's going to just briefly talk about think, pair, share, and simulation pause. But if you have others to add, Larry, you go right ahead.
Larry Manalo: We're trying to have active learning strategies with students, go to where they are. Whether it's in the hallway of the clinical setting, or it's in the hallway of the school, or it's a lunch break, or something. Because I found that students that struggle then do not really reach out. So you really have to look for them. So if you already identify an at-risk student, just chase it. And you would be surprised on how open they are. And their struggles are part of how academically prepared or underprepared they are. And you might have to intervene and do something. And the other one is check if they're going to the math lab, if you have a math lab, because math lab may be teaching them math, not word problem solving, which is so different from those calculations. So sometimes the confusion is because they were trying to look for the math rather than trying to solve a word problem. And it's good to know those pieces because sometimes they are just confused with multiple ways of dealing with the same equation.
Donna Meyer: So have you tried the first two, the think, pair, share, and the simulation pause?
Larry Manalo: Yes. And it works.
Donna Meyer: I know a couple of-- Gracie said--
Larry Manalo: Yeah, Stacey and I have to go [inaudible], yeah.
Donna Meyer: Gracie mentioned, "Agree with sticking--" oh, wait, where was it? Oh, it's Dawn who said, "I do all of these you shared, and they all work for different students." That's true. I do think the think, pair, share can be really fun because the students are working with each other, and you're actually getting more than just the dosage calc. You can talk about the mode of actions, the indications, the side effects, and all of that. So it's a great way to really get pharmacology into the dosage calc, which is really the gist of it. You need that pharm and-- oh, all right. And Heather, did you want to add anything about the error analysis case study or the exit ticket? I think the exit ticket's fun.
Heather Breaux: So the exit ticket is probably a fun-- it's one of those fun ways to get students involved, but it's also one of the things that they're ready to go, but you can't go until you get your exit ticket. And ways you can do that is you can say-- for instance, you're talking about heart failure, and you're given Lasix. Well, you have a problem about Lasix. It's a way to get pharmacology into it, but also to do some math in relationship to whatever we've learned. And it's just a real fun way to say, "Hey, this is your exit ticket. It has to be right before you can go." And it also helps gauge what they've learned in the class that day also.
Donna Meyer: Wonderful. Thank you. Patrick, next slide, please. Okay. So at the bottom of your screen is the resources, the resource section. And in there are some documents. We will find the active learning strategies. And then we also have put in a few other things, a faculty implementation checklist, just to kind of run through these things at a faculty meeting and/or just in your own mind, just some ideas to be thinking about. So we put a few things. Next slide, please. And then a framework for developing medication calculation competency. Now, these documents look a little bit different. This is just kind of a slide overview of what we've done. And again, these are just some resources for you. We like to always have some takeaways so you can actually have something to use in the classroom and/or on your own, not even in the class, just for your own benefit. So we wanted to share those things with you today under the resource section. We also have, under the resource section-- we'll talk about it at the end. There are some things we always offer to you. So I think now we have another fun activity. You want to move to the next slide, I think? Okay. So Kelly is now going to talk to you a little bit and just show you the Dosage Calc course that is digital that you can use that is obviously powered by Level Up RN, but it's a great resource. And Larry kind of mentioned this some of the, you know, use it in their programs. But we just want you to know that this is something that would be available to faculty. And we will tell you a little bit later how you can get access to this. So.
Kelley Larson: Perfect. Thanks, Donna. So just real quick, before I do my screen share, I just wanted to share the couple of slides that we just talked about. Those can be really helpful for you if you're at that point where you're trying to ask some questions about, "Are we doing dosage calculation in the way that we as a faculty team really want to be able to do it based off of some information we've heard today?" So those resources are going to be located in the bottom part of your screen. You'll see some tabs listed where the Zoom menu is. You'll see a button called Resources. When you click on that, you'll be able to see some links and then also a tab for documents. Perfect. So with that, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. One of the things that we offer through Level Up RN is dosage calculation. And so in just a little bit, I'll share how educators can get free access to the dosage calculation resources, but just wanted to share today kind of how we've laid this out and, and explain a little bit about how to use it. So what I've done is I've logged into my Level Up RN account, and I've put in my username and my password, and it's going to bring you to this home screen. We have been doing some updates. We're always working on stuff. So if you haven't logged in in a little bit, it might just look a little bit different, but please know we're just working on different updates. So to get to the dosage calculation material, what I'm going to do is I'm going to navigate under Courses, and I'll go ahead and select Dosage Calculation. And so what you'll see is when I open up the course, you're going to see the syllabus that's going to have all of the information in it kind of broken down step by step. So you'll see with dosage calculation, we're going to start at the very beginning, all of those basic skills that students need: rounding rules, dividing fractions, understanding conversions, how to read drug labels. All of that content's going to be in there. But you'll see that it also then starts to progress. And so as we begin to get students more familiar with the content, they'll walk into oral medications, injectables, and then moving all into the specialty areas. So I'm going to go ahead and click into the course. And so you'll see that navigation bar is on the left-hand side, and then the content will be on the right-hand side. As we jump in, what you'll see here is that we do show all three methods. So if your students are needing some more information about how to do dimensional analysis, this is really broken down for them step by step. But again, all three methods because we know students learn by a variety of different ways. And then as we jump into the content, I'm just going to jump into unit number one. And so you'll see in unit number one, it's going to start out with Kathy Parks up at the whiteboard working through the problems. So that idea of really being able to help your students step by step by step, the video is going to walk through each step of how do you work through the problems. And then after the video, what you'll see is there's a series of practice problems. So I'm going to jump into the practice problem. And I'm just going to go ahead and put in an answer so you can see how this is displayed. So I've answered the question, just a simple conversion type question. But what you'll see down here with the rationale is that we're really instructing or showing students different ways to solve that problem using the three different strategies. And so the product kind of lays out where you've got the video content, and then you've got the practice problems. And so just touching on what we've talked a little bit about before, it's really important that our students are getting that consistent practice. They're building those skills. They're understanding that application. So our product really moves beyond just being math problems, and it's going to help show the students the context to what they're doing. So it's not just, "Do the math problem," right? We want them to see things a little bit beyond that.
Kelley Larson: And so as I jump into the insulin problems, you'll see here, we've got the dynamic exhibits where they're filling in the syringes, really bringing in that context, that application of, "Okay, I've done the math calculation, but what does this really mean when I'm at the point where I need to draw up this medication and really evaluate if it's safe or appropriate?" You'll also see as we dig into IV therapy-- I'll just jump in and show you a couple of these problems. So they're going to get a little bit harder as we move along, again, with that rationale. And then even as we move into pediatrics you'll see the weight-based calculations and really giving students that strong rationale behind, "Okay, how do we really break this down to solve it?" So with that, I'm just going to take a pause because I know I'm showing you a lot of information at once. I can't see the chat, but if there's any questions, don't hesitate to either come off mute or put your question in the chat.
Donna Meyer: Somebody asked if they can print out the quizzes.
Kelley Larson: I do not believe that there is functionality to be able to print out the practice problems. And please know that these are not behind a secure server. So students do have access to this. So we always encourage to use these problems as practice, not necessarily for assessment. But this is a great way to be able to jump in, give great instruction to your students, but also allow them to get in and work through the practice problems and really hone in on that content and information that they're struggling with. This can also be super helpful as a faculty member because you may need a resource to have some practice problems to sit down with your students to work through. So through this, you're able to get free educator access, and then you'll be able to jump into the dosage calculation material to be able to take a look at it, but then also potentially use it with your students in a variety of ways.
Kelley Larson: Now, one of the nice features that we've incorporated into Flashables, just depending on where you're at in your situation. If you're a part of our Unified program, if your students are connected basically to the dosage calc information, you'll be able to see the work that they're doing in the dashboard. And so as an educator, that's super, super helpful because you're able to get some insight into how many videos are they watching, how many practice questions are they doing, and then what are their results on those practice questions. So just real quick-- I'm not going to go into a ton of detail about it, but just a brief show and tell. When I jump into the dashboard here and I go into my classes, you'll see here that I've got a tab in my instructor dashboard. So only instructors see this. Students don't. But when I jump into my dosage calculation here, what it will do is it's going to break down. This should look somewhat familiar. All the units that we see in dosage calculation are listed there. And then I'm able to see if the students are doing the work and their percentage in terms of how they're answering the questions. So just a little insight for faculty to be able to see how students are doing. You can change the timeframe over a couple different periods of time for that tracking. So just a feature. So I know that that was a really, really quick demonstration, but just wanted to share some of the features that we have in dosage calculation. And of course, if you're interested in more information, we can certainly get you some additional information.
Donna Meyer: So a couple questions. Larry actually asked, do you find it important to include the units in the answers that students provide? And also, is this free for students? No, it is not free for students as far as we will provide a link. Angelina can put the link in so educators can get access to the dosage calc course. You can use it as you like with your students. And Angelina would be the person to reach out to if you want to know about how students can get access to it. She can put her email in the chat also with the link for free educator access. Do know when you get the educator access, you will not only get educator access to the dosage calc, but for all the core content as well as-- we have other courses on EKGs, lab values, different things. So when you go in, you will see it's the core content that we teach in nursing, med-surg, maternity, mental health, that type of thing. Yeah, so it's a great resource to use. But again, Level Up is in-- their mission is to provide free access to every educator in the country for this. So I think that's important. So Annie, let's see. Angelina, did you put the link in for them? Okay. Sorry. I know you're trying to do-- I just want to make sure.
Kelley Larson: Perfect. And then, Patrick, if you're able to display the presentation, can you move to the slide that gives the educator access? Perfect. So--
Donna Meyer: This is one way.
Kelley Larson: Yeah. One way to be able to jump in and get that educator access if you use that link or QR code there. Then you can go ahead and put in your information. There should be no cost for you as an educator to get access. Once you fill out the form, what will happen is you'll receive an activation email. That's a specific email just to you. Once you receive that email, you want to go ahead and click on the activation link that will give you the opportunity to set up a username, password, and then you're in. And then in terms of cost to students, Angelina is definitely best to address those questions and certainly can reach out depending on the school situation. There's different options available. And then to your question, Larry, I don't know that I answered it 100 % in terms of the units, being able to put in the units. I think it's a matter of-- I've worked with a lot of different schools across the country. And in my days of educating, we used to have our students write in the physical units to get that understanding of the difference, right, between a microgram or a milligram. I know that that's not necessarily always the-- or the way that all of exams are administered, but getting that clinical context and understanding, I think, is what is most important for our students to understand what they're doing, why they're doing it, and when they should be doing it. For sure.
Donna Meyer: Yeah, Angelina put the link in, and it should say zero when you go to access that link. There should be no cost; you shouldn't put a credit card in or anything like that. So you might want to try that link that she just put in the chat. And I also put my email further up if you saw it. It's pretty easy. But if you have questions or anybody had trouble getting those documents, I'm happy to send them. Kelly and I are happy to set up meetings with educators to talk about the resources and how it all works. But yeah, definitely take advantage of the free access and look around, spend some time in it, and see-- I'm basically an advisor, and I just kind of enjoy showing it to everybody, so. But yeah. So we-- go ahead, Kelly.
Kelley Larson: Yeah, I think we've got another audience poll question.
Donna Meyer: Yes, we do. We do. We want to end up with some-- so what is one change you are most likely to take back to your program after today's session? And there's our answers, so if you want to go ahead, and we'll see where we're at. And also getting lots of thanks. It was just really great having you all here. And we are having another Elevate series. These are monthly. And so the next one is on September 24, and it's going to be more about NCLEX preparation. And again, two amazing educators will be joining us at that time who are academic support specialists for a college in California. So we look forward to that. We're going to wait and see what kind of response we get from this audience poll. Do we have some responses? [laughter] Oh, here we go.
Kelley Larson: Perfect.
Donna Meyer: Let's see what we come up with here.
Angelina Guzman: It wasn't launching, and I didn't know if someone else had set it live, but it just gave me the button right now, so.
Donna Meyer: Okay. Sorry.
Angelina Guzman: [crosstalk].
Donna Meyer: Give it a few minutes, but in the meantime, while you look at that, I do want to really thank all of you for joining today because I do know August is a very busy time as you're beginning the semester. As a reminder, these are always recorded. You will get a recording of this, so you can always sit down with another faculty member and listen to it again. So that's a great option for all of you. And also, let's see if we're getting some answers before I follow up with this.
Kelley Larson: We've got a couple more answers coming in, Donna, so we'll give it another 10 seconds or so.
Donna Meyer: Okay.
[silence]
Donna Meyer: Let's see. Nope. I can't see the responses, so that's why I don't know.
Angelina Guzman: Okay. I'll end it right now. We've got about 80% participation, is all. There you go.
Donna Meyer: That's all.
Angelina Guzman: There you go. Can you see?
Donna Meyer: Yes, now I can. Thank you so much. So the big winner for the exit is "add more active learning and clinical application which I think is really important. And then again, increase opportunities for ongoing low-stakes practice so that students aren't afraid of it, so. I also want to give a huge thank you to Larry and Heather, who are always-- love to have you come, and you've done a great job once again. So thank you so much for taking time and sharing with all of these amazing educators out there because we really appreciate all that you do. We, especially Kelly and I, as nurse educators and having taught for quite a few years in different types of programs, specifically, for me, associate degree - it is challenging, but it's also very rewarding. So thank you for all you do. We hope you have a great semester. I want to remind you also that Kelly, twice a week, does a walk-through of Flashables, and that was also listed. The links were in the resource section to join, but you can also go to the Level Up RN website to find those walk-throughs. So we hope we see you again in September. There's a date for the-- that's not the next walk-through, though. Sorry.
Kelley Larson: Yeah. We'll be doing a walk-through next week, but you can use that link to register. And then, as Donna had mentioned, we've got our Elevate Series that will be happening next month also. So we really hope that you guys join us for that. But please know, if you've gotten educator access today and you have friends or colleagues that would also like to have access, please encourage them to reach out to us or to come to our Tuesday session. These are resources we would like to share with nurse educators. So feel free to invite your friends.
Donna Meyer: And we really--
Angelina Guzman: I just dropped a link in the chat if anybody wants for our Tuesday sessions. So it's there for you.
Donna Meyer: Yeah.
Donna Meyer: And again, we're happy to set up individual meetings just to have a discussion, or you can join. And I see a lot of applause out there, but I want to applaud all of you for taking time and for all the great work you do in nursing education. So I hope you have a great semester. Again, a huge thank you to Larry and Heather. And also a shout-out to Angelina, who does a lot of work for Level Up RN with all of you to help your program. So it's great to see all of you today. And again, hope you have a really great semester, and thank you. Bye-bye.
Kelley Larson: Thank you, everyone.
Angelina Guzman: Gracie, you can just email us, and we can set something up.
Donna Meyer: Okay.
Gracie: Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Angelina Guzman: No, of course. It's ... in case you missed it in the chat.
Kelley Larson: And we'll hang out just for a minute. If anybody's got questions, please know we're here to answer any questions you have.
