Risk reduction in drug administration by infusion

The administration of drugs by infusion is a routine practice in emergency services worldwide. However, not all health professionals master this art owing to multiple factors (American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 2022). During our medical training, pharmacology was one of the most feared and admired—the calculation of doses and infusion rates being one of the reasons. Time and practice have helped us to strengthen our skills in calculating and dosing infusions. However, the dynamic, unpredictable, and changing environment that is typical of emergency services adds to the numerous calculations that must be carried out and contributes to errors in pharmacological calculations, particularly among students (Asensi-Vicente et al, 2018).

When thinking about pharmacological calculations for infusion, several formulas for calculating concentration, infusion rate, constants and doses probably come to mind; although they have helped us on multiple occasions, the reality is that in situations of stress and confusion, they can become impractical. In the current literature, multiple formulas for the calculation of infusions are detailed, which maintain in common the extension and complexity of their calculations (Fuentes-Mallozzi et al, 2013; England, 2017).