Nurses' poor maths skills 'putting lives at risk'

Published on Monday 20 October 2008 10:12

NURSES' poor maths is putting patients' lives at risk, a Government report has revealed.

A new study carried out in Lothian hospitals reveals "widespread confusion" in the nursing sector over how to calculate correct dosage of powerful intravenous drugs.

Tutors observed 40 nurses in voluntary remedial numeracy workshops at Edinburgh's Western General and Royal Infirmary and at St John's Hospital in Livingston. They found they had difficulty converting doses from larger to smaller units, adapting doses using fractions or multiplication, calculating flow rates, and applying patients' weight to adjust dosages.

The tutors' report says nurses are putting patients in danger by miscalculating doses because they lack basic numeracy.

The study also found that many on the three-hour courses did not check dosages prescribed by doctors, and those that did had found mistakes.

The report, funded by NHS Education for Scotland, concluded: "The tutor did not imagine . . . that such a wide range of numeracy ability would be exhibited and was amazed to be spending more and more time with the earlier, more basic numeracy problems of metric units and calculator skills."

Student nurses are now being given an online numeracy assessment and offered help.