Errors in drug computations during newborn intensive care
P. H. Perlstein, C. Callison, M. White, B. Barnes and N. K. Edwards
Medical personnel in a pediatric center were tested for their ability to
correctly compute drug doses for sick newborns. One of every 12 doses
computed by 95 registered nurses contained an error that would result in
the administration of an amount that was ten times higher or lower than the
dose ordered. The error rate was no different for experienced or
inexperienced nurses. The test also included an evaluation of the nurse's
ability to judge the appropriateness of the drug dose ordered for a
specified infant. Experienced nurses tended to be more certain, although
wrong, in their judgment when compared to inexperienced nurses. Eleven
pediatricians, when given the same test, scored higher than the nurses but
still made errors at the rate of one of every 26 computations attempted.
Five registered pharmacists who were tested demonstrated far better
computational skills than either the nursing or physician group.
