Dose calculation and medication error – why are we still weakened by strengths?

Retention of drug administration skills after intensive teaching

“…These findings concur with other researchers [4][5][6][7] and, despite calls for ampoule labelling to be standardised [8], drugs are still presented in packaging that is potentially confusing.…”

“…Our research focuses on drug administration skills, originating from our observation that medical students and doctors are confused by expressing the concentration of drug solutions as ratios and percentages rather than mass concentration [1][2][3]. These findings concur with other researchers [4][5][6][7] and, despite calls for ampoule labelling to be standardised [8], drugs are still presented in packaging that is potentially confusing.Our findings have also suggested that a lack of education about drug administration can lead to drug dosing errors, and served to highlight that drug administration skills in our university were taught on an entirely ad hoc basis [1]. We sought to improve drug administration teaching for our medical students by ensuring that drug dose calculation was included in formal teaching for all students.…”

“…Our research focuses on drug administration skills, originating from our observation that medical students and doctors are confused by expressing the concentration of drug solutions as ratios and percentages rather than mass concentration [1][2][3]. These findings concur with other researchers [4][5][6][7] and, despite calls for ampoule labelling to be standardised [8], drugs are still presented in packaging that is potentially confusing.…”

The effect of additional teaching on medical students' drug administration skills in a simulated emergency scenario

“…In a study conducted in 2002, we found that only 62.3% knew that a 1 : 1000 solution of adrenaline (epinephrine) contains 1 mg.ml )1 and only 37.6% knew that 1% lidocaine contains 10 mg.ml . There is evidence that this may be a global problem for medical students and doctors alike [2-5], and our past research has led us to recommend that ampoule labels be standardised to mass concentration, and education about drug administration improved [6].We recently reported the impact of an online teaching module designed to improve our medical students' drug dose calculation and administration skills [7]. The module consisted of interactive tutorials concerning pharmacokinetics, drug interactions and dose calculations, case studies, and the opportunity for self-assessment.…”

“…In a study conducted in 2002, we found that only 62.3% knew that a 1 : 1000 solution of adrenaline (epinephrine) contains 1 mg.ml )1 and only 37.6% knew that 1% lidocaine contains 10 mg.ml . There is evidence that this may be a global problem for medical students and doctors alike [2-5], and our past research has led us to recommend that ampoule labels be standardised to mass concentration, and education about drug administration improved [6].…”