Reported by: Kathryn J Eastwood, Masters Student

Checked by: Malcolm J Boyle and Brett Williams, Senior Lecturers

Institution: Monash University, Victoria, Australia

A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether parameduics can calculate drug doses accurately. A total of 1266 citations was reviewed, of which two partly answered the three-part question. The clinical bottom line is that even when paramedics are not under on-the-job pressure their ability to perform drug calculations accurately is poor.

CLINICAL SCENARIO

Paramedics may be exposed to incidents in uncontrolled environments, managing potentially critically ill patients, other people and other emergency services. In the presence of these factors, can paramedics still conduct drug calculations with a high degree of accuracy?

THREE-PART QUESTION

Are [Paramedics’] [able to perform drug calculations] with [100% accuracy].

SEARCH STRATEGY

Medline: 1950 to end of …