Paramedics

The everyday math

Paramedics give medicines as part of the job. O*NET rates "Administer drugs, orally or by injection, or perform intravenous procedures" at 84 out of 100 for importance for paramedics.¹ The UK National Careers Service lists giving patients medicines and injections among the tasks.² For the related emergency care assistant role, it notes that some ambulance services may ask for 3 or 4 GCSEs, including English and mathematics.³

Calculator rule: we did not find or check an official paramedic numeracy test, so we cannot tell you its calculator rule. Ask your course or ambulance service.

The skills behind it, built around science

Researchers in Australia have looked at this arithmetic closely. In a small pilot study, 20 qualified paramedics on an intensive care paramedic course, with an average of 7.25 years in the job, were given 12 questions with no notice and no calculator; they averaged 71.7%, 4 of them got all 12 right, and the authors called for "regular continuing mathematical and drug calculation practice and education".⁴ In about 90 paramedic students at Monash University, more of the errors were about the concept of the calculation (48.5%) than about the arithmetic itself (31.1%).⁵ In 108 paramedic students, earlier math education and numerical ability went together with drug calculation scores, which is a link, not proof of a cause.⁶

So arithmetic is only one part of it. The Brain Cruncher practises keeping a number in your head while the steps change, and Multiply & Divide practises the facts inside sums like these.

• The Brain Cruncher
• Classic workouts

Honest limits