Background An ability to accurately perform drug calculations unassisted is an essential skill for all health professionals, with various occupational-specific stressors exacerbating mathematical deficiencies.

Objectives The objective of this study was to determine the unaided mathematic ability of first year undergraduate paramedic students before and after mathematical and drug calculation tutorials.

Methods Students were administered a questionnaire containing demographic, drug calculation and arithmetic questions during week one of the semester before the tutorials. During the semester students participated in three 2-hour tutorials which included both mathematical and drug calculation questions without assistance of computational devices. At the end of semester was a summative drug calculation examination of which five key questions were compared to similar questions from the first questionnaire. Descriptive statistics describe the demographic data with a paired t-test comparing the questionnaire and exam results.

Results Drug calculation and mathematical ability was markedly improved following the tutorials, mean score of correct answers before 1.74 (SD 1.4) and after 4.14 (SD 0.93), p < 0001. When comparing the correct results for the same question type, there were statistically significant differences in four of five different drug calculations: volume of drug drawn up 10 v 57 p < 0.0001, infusion rate 29 v 31 p = 0.717, drip rate 16 v 54 p < 0.0001, volume from a syringe 30 v 59 p < 0.0001, and drug dose 42 v 62 p < 0.0001. Total errors reduced from 188 to 45.

Conclusions First year undergraduate paramedic students initially demonstrated a poor ability to complete mathematical and drug calculations without the assistance of computational devices. This improved significantly following appropriate education and practice. Further research is required to determine the retention of this ability over time.