Table 1.

Participants’ characteristics and pretest results

	E-learning (n=92)	Classroom (n=91)	p Value
Participants’ characteristics
Age (years)	41.6 (8.8)	42.4 (10.1)	0.57
Gender (men)	8 (8.7%)	8 (8.8%)	0.98
Childhood outside Norway	7 (7.6%)	7 (7.7%)	0.98
Nurse education outside Norway	5 (5.4%)	4 (4.4%)	0.75
Work experience as nurse (years)	12.8 (9.6)	11.7 (9.3)	0.44
Part-time job latest 12 months (full time=1)	0.84 (0.18)	0.88 (0.15)	0.13
Working in hospital	42 (45.7%)	37 (40.7%)	0.50
Frequency of drug dose calculation tasks at work (0–3)*	1.5 (1.1)	1.3 (1.1)	0.28
Mathematics beyond 1st year high school/USS†	38 (41.3%)	38 (41.8%)	0.95
Other education before becoming a nurse	37 (40.2%)	41 (45.1%)	0.51
Postgraduate specialisation	31 (33.7%)	26 (28.6%)	0.45
Course in drug dose calculations latest 3 years	9 (9.8%)	13 (14.3%)	0.35
Motivation for course in drug dose calculations (1–4)	3.3 (0.5)	3.2 (0.5)	0.12
Pretest results
Sense of coping (0–3)‡	0.79 (0.25)	0.81 (0.31)	0.60
Sense of self-esteem/well-being (0–3)‡	1.01 (0.18)	1.03 (0.21)	0.45
Knowledge (score 0–14)	11.1 (1.7)	11.0 (2.3)	0.80
Certainty (score 0–3)	2.1 (0.6)	1.9 (0.6)	0.35
Risk of error (score 1–3)	1.4 (0.2)	1.5 (0.3)	0.27

The results are given as mean (SD in brackets), or number of participants (proportion in brackets).

*Scale: 0=less than monthly, 1=monthly, 2=weekly, 3=every working day.

†Upper secondary school.

‡Scale: 0=more/better than usual, 1=as usual, 2=less/worse than usual, 3=much less/worse than usual. Statistical tests: t test, Mann-Whitney U test, χ² test, Fisher exact test.