Drug Dosage Calculations – Level 2 – Online CPD Course

Who is the online drug dosage calculations training course for?

This drug dosage calculations training e-learning course should be completed by those who work in health and social care services including:

• NHS medical, nursing, AHP and care staff
• Locum doctors and nurses
• Locum allied health professionals (AHPs)
• Agency nurses
• Agency workers
• Healthcare assistants
• Support workers
• Care assistants
• Nursery staff
• Teaching staff
• Community services

Our online drug dosage calculations training courses should be completed by all clinical, healthcare and social care staff who dispense and administer medications., whether in the NHS or private hospitals/healthcare providers. Locum doctors, locum allied health professionals, agency nurses and healthcare assistants can also complete these drug calculations e-learning courses.

These drug dosage calculation training courses are also relevant for health and social care support workers, including those who work for nursing care homes, residential care homes and charities.

What are drug calculations?

Drug calculations involve the basic arithmetic operations to measure and ascertain exact drug/medication dosages as per prescription, including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. In some clinical areas, some drug calculations can also include more advanced operations, such as manipulations of percentages, square roots, exponentiation, and logarithmic functions depending on how the medications or drugs have been prescribed or in line with local guidance or protocols.

Most nurses and other clinical staff will often be called upon to administer or supervise the administration of all types of medicines in different forms and strengths. As part of this drug calculations training course, you will learn how to do this safely and efficiently. However, the achievement of this aim requires the development of a certain degree of basic mathematical skills. The required level of basic mathematics is not high, but attaining it is necessary to ensure that the safety of patients is not compromised.

It is important to note that drug calculations appear to be impossibly difficult unless you break them down into small steps. They are vitally important to get right, yet so easy to get wrong. This online drug calculations course will now look at some commonly used drug calculations and the way that mistakes can happen.

This drug calculations training course covers a variety of numeracy-based tasks which nurses, midwives and other clinical staff may be required to perform in practice. These include drug calculations and setting drip rates on the controls of intravenous infusion controllers.

Why are drug dosage calculations important?

Nursing competence in drug calculations has been a cause for concern (Duffin, 2000; Coombes, 2000). Hutton (1998a) suggests that a degree of ‘de-skilling’ has resulted from the increasing user-friendliness of drug preparations and widespread use of electronic drip counters.

The lack of basic maths skills can be a major problem when it comes to nurses administering drugs to patients, often with very serious consequences. Poor drug calculations are still a significant source of drug error. Evidence has shown that many nurses are weak with drug calculations of all sorts. This comprehensive drug calculations course will help to review the major concepts related to drug calculations, help walk you through a few exercises, and provide a few exercises you can perform on your own to check your skills. There are many reference books available to review basic math skills if you find that you have difficulty with even the basic conversion exercises.

What are the Skills for Health’s UK “Core Skills Training Framework” (CSTF)?

There is increasing recognition that there are wide variations in the quality and consistency of healthcare training provided across the UK. To minimise these challenges, Octrac Consulting works with various UK health and social care organisations to develop statutory and mandatory training courses in line with Skills for Health’s UK Core Skills Training Framework (CSTF).

This includes mandatory training courses and other awareness courses for health and social care workers.

This online drug dosage calculations training course was developed in line with the CSTF learning outcomes.

Why choose our accredited e-learning courses?

The benefits of using our accredited e-learning courses in the workplace include:

• National Skills Academy for Health national delivery partner
• The UK accredited e-learning provider
• An approved UK training centre
• Ofqual accredited qualifications
• Nationally recognised CPD certificates
• Free blended learning environment to support existing training
• Access your online training immediately
• The highly interactive e-learning portal
• Substantial cost reductions (no travel fees & other expenses)
• Embrace the benefits of eLearning for healthcare providers
• Significant man-hour reductions
• Online training only takes as long as the learner’s needs
• Low carbon footprint through e-learning
• Over 1000 online CPD courses
• Repository of online learning materials and assessment
• Fully qualified and experienced trainers, instructors and assessors
• Subject matter experts and content developers
• Convert your existing classroom courses to e-learning courses
• All training courses are based on the latest guidance and best practice