Many nurses have difficulty with drug calculations. Mostly because they don’t enjoy or understand math. Practicing drug calculations will help nurses develop stronger and more confident math skills. Many drugs require some type of calculation prior to administration. The drug calculations range in complexity from requiring a simple conversion calculation to a more complex calculation for drugs administered by mcg/kg/min. Regardless of the drug to be administered, careful and accurate calculations are important to help prevent medication errors. Many nurses become overwhelmed when performing the drug calculations, when they require multiple steps or involve life-threatening drugs. The main principle is to remain focused on what you are doing and try to not let outside distractions cause you to make a error in calculations. It is always a good idea to have another nurse double check your calculations. Sometimes nurses have difficulty calculating dosages on drugs that are potentially life threatening. This is often because they become focused on the actual drug and the possible consequences of an error in calculation. The best way to prevent this is to remember that the drug calculations are performed the same way regardless of what the drug is. For example, whether the infusion is a big bag of vitamins or a life threatening vasoactive cardiac drug, the calculation is done exactly the same way.