Pharm ???? grains converted to mg.

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi, stuck on a problem (gr iiss to mg) I know how to convert grains to mg, but this one problem I'm:confused: please assist. Thanks in advance.:)

Specializes in Peds/Neo CCT,Flight, ER, Hem/Onc.

Seriously, is anybody still ordering in grains? In all my years of nursing I have never once seen an order using the apothecary system. Nursing students have enough to worry about without cramming useless information into their poor brains.

Seriously, is anybody still ordering in grains? In all my years of nursing I have never once seen an order using the apothecary system. Nursing students have enough to worry about without cramming useless information into their poor brains.

I worked with a surgeon some years back who wrote Tylenol and Aspirin orders in grains. However, I agree, this is an antiquated system and the conversion to metric is not exact in any event. The rest of the world and most of the United States uses the metric system. We should stick to this as a standard and leave confusing, antiquated systems in the history books where they belong.

For the purposes of nusring......

1 grain = 60 mg fr all drugs except Aspirin and Tylenol where the grain then equals 65 mg.

gr iiss I believe would be incorrect order as the joint commission has gr as do not use? Supposed to write out grain as I recall. But I think many texts still use gr......oh well.

If not specified in the problem it is safe to assume that the drug being dispensed is not Aspirin or tylenol.

Seriously, is anybody still ordering in grains? In all my years of nursing I have never once seen an order using the apothecary system. Nursing students have enough to worry about without cramming useless information into their poor brains.

Oh grains are still out there.

Pipe: http://www.ladhs.org/wps/PA_1_QDN2DSD30O7A702DRMEJBA0000/Nursing/pdf/MCE.pdf

Now when or if today's nursing students will ever come across a med order using them is another story.

As for "old school" doctors. Our family GP is one, and I am here to tell you am looking into ways to keep the old guy going ! :D:D Simply dread the day we call for an appointment and hear "I'm sorry, Dr. "X" has retired".

Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

It seems pretty crazy their wouldn't be a standard conversion. Like for Aspirin or Tylenol it's this or for other meds it's that. We were never even taught any exceptions.

But I hated this part in math, having to learn the household, apothecary and metric. It seems the rest of the world uses metric and it would be nice for the US to switch to that as well and have one standard and would seem that would have less room for error as well.

Add to that the metric system is very easy and convenient with the move of a decimal in conversions.

Specializes in ER.

I worked with a wonderful ER doc (who isn't THAT old), and sometimes when she would get tired, she would inadvertently write our nitro orders in grains. Always threw someone for a loop...you could almost guess what it was when you would hear a "*****" coming from the Pyxis room. :D

We had free rein to take it back to her and give her heck about it. :smokin:

Unless a drug is only dispensed by the manufacturer in grains (are there any still out there?), it should be ordered in a more standard unit. A lot of hospitals have policies that "forbid" the apothecary system...so if the provider writes the order in grains, no matter what, the nurse has to call for clarification.

The LTC I work for doesn't allow the apothecary system either...right now we have one nurse that like to write orders that way...either that or she will write ss followed by that weird little scribble for one-half ounce instead of 15 mL or just writing out one-half ounce. She also uses all sorts of abbreviations that no one but her has ever heard of. She says she has been a nurse too long to change. I am the only other nurse who actually knows what she means when she writes orders or abbreviates in charts the "old" way. I feel old now. :coollook:

LOL...starting June 1, we can't use ANY abbreviations at all except for "standard terms" like RN, LPN, MD, EMT, etc. I'm scared! :uhoh3:

Specializes in Public health nursing.
I was taught 60 mg to 1 grain. This is interesting...

Ditto.

I got 150 mg.

ii= 2

ss= 1/2

1 gr = 60 mg

Therefore

2.5 gr (60mg/1gr) = 150 mg

Specializes in mental health, aged care/disability care.

what the heck is a grain? I've never heard of that as a measurement.

what the heck is a grain? I've never heard of that as a measurement.

Living in the land of the southern cross, you most likely will never encounter a grain. However in the States we still have a few holdouts that insist a number system based on the factor of ten is simply not complicated enough for their taste. :D

what the heck is a grain? I've never heard of that as a measurement.

Then you are quite lucky!:D

For nursing students (myself included), right up until rather recently had to know the darn conversions by memory as part of med dose calc.

Before there were pharmacists, there was the apothecary, who for sake of keeping things short, made up various medicines, potions and such for doctors, kings, and anyone else who needed them. Their system of measurement, espeically for small amounts is the apothecaries system.

Grain was just that, the weight of one grain of wheat (which you can imagine often varied by where it was grown). In additon (for nursing purposes), there was scruple, minim, gtts (drops) and drams. We had to learn by memory conversions between apothecary,metric and household. No computers either, and had to show all work:crying2:

None of that "ratio to porportion" either, though my former instructor now writes nursing text books on med dose calc using that method. Gee why did she wait 15 years? :idea:

Many "old" drugs, especially those listed in the US pharmacopeia such as belladonna, opium, codeine, phenobarbital, and aspirin were measured in grains. Thus: ASA gr. v c cod. gr. ss tablets, or Phenobarb gr i.

Grains were fine long as the United States stayed out of the metric system, but as more and more drugs came in both grains and their metric conversion into grams, if a nurse (or anyone else preparing and or dispensing meds), read the order or script incorrectly it could lead to serious problems. For this reason the apothecary system is being faded out.

Oh the nightmares:

gtts to tsp

drams to tsp

tsp to drams

Both answers are right. My pharmacology book stated that one grain is equal to 60mg or 65mg. I guess it depends. On what I don't know. LOL I always used 60mg to covert unless 65mg matched the question/answer better.

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