Nurse's drug calculation ability in intensive care unit (ICU)

Serving multiform of drugs, specially those used in milligram, milliecivalan or concentration/percent, mostly by nurses could be a source of calculation error. This study performed to investigate nurse's calculation error related to drugs mostly used in ICU.

In this descriptive study, 36 randomly selected ICU nurses of Mazandaran university of medical science's hospitals completed a questionnaire included demographic and 5 questions about the three main drugs used in critical conditions. The answers evaluated to three levels (low, moderate and good).

Most ICU nurses (55/5%) drug calculation ability was moderate. There were no significant difference between male and female nurses in drug calculation ability.

Nurse's drug calculation ability in non milli- or microgram unit drugs is low or moderate and they do lots of mistakes. So, it is suggested that all of ICU nurses should learn about drug calculation and attend in some related educational classes.