Clinical nurse specialists leading research to improve practice in the use of ankle blood pressure readings.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to describe Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) practice as it relates to leadership in clinical research through the presentation of a study on ankle blood pressure (BP) measurements led by the CNS.

Background: Under the direction of the CNS, staff nurses engaged in the EBP process to explore the association between arm and ankle BP measurements. This EBP project led to a research study which was directed and led by the CNS.

Improving medication calculation skills of practicing nurses and senior nursing students: a pilot study.

Medication administration is an essential nursing competency as calculation difficulties can lead to serious medication errors. Nurses involved in staff education need to be aware of methods to assess for computation difficulty and develop strategies for nurses to improve their computation abilities. The purposes of this quasi-experimental pilot study were to assess the medication calculation skills of nurses and nursing students and to determine the effectiveness of teaching strategies aimed at improving these skills.