An Innovative Flipped Class Intervention to Improve Dose Calculation Skills of Phase I Medical Students: A Preliminary Study

Numeracy is important in the practice of medicine. Few studies have addressed the ability of medical students to perform arithmetical calculations required to identify the correct mass or volume of a drug in solution. This study assessed the ability of Phase I medical students to effectively recall and use knowledge of systems and measures for calculation of strengths of drugs in solution before and after a Systems of Measure & Dosage Calculation Flipped Class Session(SMDC-FCS). Those participating voluntarily were present during the pre- & post- SMDC-FCS to answer selected questions in succession under timed conditions. The questions were devised to test knowledge of medications used across multiple specialities. Our study data indicates that our medical students are not informally picking up requisite knowledge and skills during the MBBS course. A SMDC-FCS intervention improved medical student performance of dose calculations.