Pediatric Drug Dosages

Tweety, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2005

Julie, it is indeed frustrating that there's the book way and then the real world way. I think you did the right thing holding the drug until you got some clarification.

Our pharmacy won't dispense a medication out of range and calls the the doc to get clarification (or if they are lazy or it's nighttime lets the nurse call the doc). So perhaps it was already clarified?

jschut, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2005

Who knows? It wasn't written that it was clarified on the test, but whatever the teach says goes.....

misschelei · Sep 20, 2005

I think you are right. We were always taught in nursing school to follow the ciriculum not what healthcare experience rules . That irritated a lot of people as they all said "but we don't do it that way". There are a lot of things the docs will get irritated about that you learned in nursing school and we get irritated about a lot of what the docs learned (or didn't learn) in med school but it's all subjective and has no place on a test. A difference of 0.1 is not significant but how were you to know she wasn't trying to trick you. The question should not have been figured that way IMO.

jschut, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2005

Exactly. With a 0.1 difference, how were we to know she expected us to give it anyway? I still think clarification was needed, but as I said before, whatever the teach says goes....and that game is played alot at my school...

For instance, careplans last semester were worth 20 points each. I ALWAYS got 19-20 on ALL of them until the last week....I changed nothing in the way I did it, but a different teacher graded it than normal, and I received a 14....

The inconsistencies in our school is absolutely amazing...but we have to roll with the punches to graduate, and that's sad.

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Sep 20, 2005

Exactly. With a 0.1 difference, how were we to know she expected us to give it anyway? I still think clarification was needed, but as I said before, whatever the teach says goes....and that game is played alot at my school...
For instance, careplans last semester were worth 20 points each. I ALWAYS got 19-20 on ALL of them until the last week....I changed nothing in the way I did it, but a different teacher graded it than normal, and I received a 14....
The inconsistencies in our school is absolutely amazing...but we have to roll with the punches to graduate, and that's sad.

I still think clarification was needed as well, since 0.1 can make a difference. This is what we were taught in school, and were also expected to notice this on tests.

Rohan · Sep 20, 2005

As a mother, I appreciate that you would NOT give it when it is over. My peds LPN tried to tell me to give my 5 year old 2.5 ml of Tussionex every 4-6 hours. Thankfully I know more about drugs than to just listen to her. I had to call my Ped and have him tell her to brush up on her dosage skills.

misschelei · Sep 20, 2005

The inconsistencies in our school is absolutely amazing...but we have to roll with the punches to graduate, and that's sad.

If student nurses around the US came together to sing this tune it would be a chorus loud enough to reach the heavens.

You don't want to play around with pedi doses. If your question was

regarding tylenol you might not have seen a difference but there are plenty of medications where an extra 0.1 could be a killer. And in the real world most pedi docs would rather get a call in the middle of the night over something trival as opposed to you guessing it will be ok.

twinmommy+2, ADN, BSN, MSN · Sep 21, 2005

ON any dosage test I would have answered just like you did. Now, in real life it would be different but you should bring it up to the faculty. You did the right thing (if you got the math right that is )