In this paper we will explore the challenge of making statistics more meaningful to future nurses. In the fast moving undergraduate student world the expectations we place upon nursing students are considerable. Typically they experience high class-contact hours in addition to their clinical placements. Compounding the problem, undergraduate nursing students have diverse mathematical backgrounds and seldom perceive statistics as being relevant for them. Given these constraints we have adopted the relatively modest aim of producing informed and discriminating consumers of statistics and research, rather than skilled statistical practitioners or researchers. With a focus on computer output rather than by-hand calculations, we have made use of strategic examples, appropriate journal articles and an historical hypothetical. This approach has both relieved the anxiety and distraction associated with calculations and increased students' engagement in the learning process.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education