Written drug dosage errors made by students: the threat to clinical effectiveness and the need for a new approach

Undergraduate paramedic students cannot do drug calculations

“…We can only speculate that perhaps due to processes such as knowledge decay, any prolonged amount of time without mathematical calculation exposure can result in a deterioration in performance. [2,3,[5][6][7][8][9][10] Without further qualitative feedback World J Emerg Med, Vol 3, No 3, 2012 from the students, the reasons behind such poor performance are unclear. Interestingly 62% (n=57) of students believed that they did not have any drug calculation issues , which is supported by the results found in the study by Hubble et al [3] where 63.5% of the practising qualifi ed paramedics in the United States who participated in a survey believed that drug calculations were 'not stressful at all'.…”

“…[3,9,11] This result indicates that in nearly half of all the errors that occurred, students were unable to extract the relevant data from the question to formulate any type of mathematical equation in order to solve the problem. The arithmetical errors were also alarming with 31.1% of all errors demonstrating that students were unable to operate the equation they had formulated from given information or that was presented to them.…”

“…[2][3][4] Results from the studies varied with mean scores ranging from 39.8% to 65% accuracy. [2][3][4] Studies [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] from many medical disciplines investigating mathematical competence suggest issues such as skills decay, the presence of equipment that automatically performs the calculations, length of time in the job, poor mathematical education during primary and secondary schooling, and pressures associated with caring for the patient during high-pressure or stressful situations as possible reasons for poor calculation performance.…”

“…The fi nal type is computational errors involve miscalculation of simple functions such as multiplication, division, subtraction or addition. [9][10][11][12][13][14] In Victoria, Australia, the fi nal two years of secondary schooling form the graduation requisites of the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). During the VCE there are three levels of mathematics in each of the final two years of secondary schooling.…”

The Relevance of Prior Knowledge in Learning and Instructional Design

“…This type of surface learning may occur if students cannot relate the new knowledge to their existing knowledge frameworks. 13,[16][17] In applied science education, such as pharmacy, where knowledge is learned in order to be able to apply it, it is important for students to develop an integrated knowledge framework from the start of their studies. 16 Therefore, deep-level understanding in basic courses is extremely important in promoting good quality learning because these courses usually form an important base for future learning.…”