Phar 2001: Health sciences calculations and patient safety

This course focuses on learning and practicing common health sciences calculations, with the goal to be able to demonstrate accurate completion and clear communication of a calculation. We will also explore the context surrounding health sciences calculations as many health professions either directly perform health sciences calculations or incorporate that information into patient care. The course will prepare you to examine the systemic, interpersonal, and individual factors that can contribute to medical errors in the healthcare system. With this context, you will be able to explain the importance of not only accurate health sciences calculations, but also appropriate documentation with clear and consistent communication to other healthcare professionals. You will also discuss the approach to handling medical errors based on “just culture” and consider how to prevent medical errors, especially around the use of medications. The intended audience of this course is pre-health students including pre-pharmacy, pre-medicine, pre-dentistry, pre-physician’s assistant, and pre-veterinary medicine.

After completion of this course, you will be able to: 

1. Organize a calculation set up in a clear and appropriately documented fashion
2. Complete health sciences calculations accurately in the topic areas covered in this course including:
   1. Medication dosage 
   2. Intravenous medication preparation
   3. Infusion rate
   4. Medication type (liquid vs pill)
   5. Pediatrics
3. Define and apply commonly used medical abbreviations and conversions
4. Describe how factors on a systemic, health system, interpersonal, and individual level can contribute to calculation errors 
5. Explain the context of health sciences calculations, potential roles of calculations in patient care, and the importance of clear and consistent communication in this area

• Medical errors and just culture 
• Fractions, decimals, and percentages
• Dimensional analysis 
• Measures and conversions 
• Reading medication labels 
• Calculations for oral and parenteral dosage forms 
• Preventing medical errors 
• IV delivery systems
• Safety in medication preparation and administration