Nursing Entrance Test - for mathematicians or nurses?

Some years ago I taught math to a group of trainee nurses. The aim of the course was to prepare these students for drug calculations, drip rates, temperature taking and so on.

I have to say I got quite concerned as the course proceeded. Many of the students had great difficulty with fractions, percentages, decimals and rates — all the things that a nurse should be competent in before doing any calculations that could end up being life-threatening.

I vowed that if I was ever hospitalized, I would require the nurse to let me check the drug calculation before I let them come near me with the syringe.

Anyway, recently I was looking over some preparation material for a nursing entrance test. The Nursing Pre-Entrance Exam Online Course has some practice tests available. The one on fractions and square roots made me wonder whether these students were going to undertake a math major, or whether it really was for nurses.

None of the questions even vaguely mentions nursing. I know it is a Pre-Entrance Exam, and they haven't even studied any nursing yet, but if they are going to prepare for this sort of test, why not do it in the context of nursing? By making it look like math (and not like something that will be useful), it is more likely to increase math anxiety and be counter-productive.

For example, the following question would leave many people wondering how it would help them to be a better nurse.

Which of these numbers is a factor of 21

A. 2
B. 5
C. 7
D. 42
E. 44

I suspect students would find this next question hard because of the language used. It would seem like a trick question:

If the value of x and y in the following fraction are both tripled, how does the value of the fraction change?
XZ / Y

The Advanced Algebra test also seems a lot more mathematical than nursing-specific. For example, here's a question with poor grammar that I imagine many students will not be able to do, and I'm not sure they really need the skill for nursing:

If the average of three numbers is V. If one of the numbers is Z and another is Y, what is the remaining number?

A. ZY - V
B. Z/V – 3 - Y
C. Z/3 – V - Y
D. 3V- Z - Y
E. V- Z – Y

Then there's this one:

6. Which of the following is not a rational number?

A. -4
B. 1/5
C. 0.8333333……
D. 0.45
E. √2

Don't get me wrong. I think the math behind most of the questions is just fine and I can see how much of it can be related to nursing. But the questions were clearly written by math people, not nursing people. I would prefer my nurse could calculate the correct drip rate, rather than solve something like the algebra or rational number questions above.

Any nurses like to comment?

See the 5 Comments below.