Med Dose Calc - Is It Possible Some Just Don't Get "It"?

Nurses Medications

Published

Ran into an aquaintance hadn't seen in awhile and we began to shoot the breeze.

Last time we spoke she had finally got into a nursing program here in the City but was struggling with Med Dose Calc. The poor thing tried six ways from Sunday to wrap her head around the concept from dimensional analysis to good old fashioned tried and true formulas, but her grades were never good. Long story short she got bounced out after failing nursing math too many times. Now one could understand if the girl was dumb as a bag of rocks, but she's actually quite clever (had a GPA >3.5), just couldn't wrap her head around things.

Am hearing from various quarters about lots of persons who are otherwise academically brilliant but cannot hack nursing math. Is this normal and how is it possible?

How is it possible? Cause my mind just doesn't work that way. I needed to look at it as a total picture..what you have vs. what you need. Once I "got it" I got it and never forgot it. I don't like math with "x's". Or understand the concepts of "X" is the "unknown number"....but I needed to be tutored, I was, and now I get it. A suggestion for your friend. You tube. If in the comfort of her own home she can watch and see and stop and rewind....it may just work. Or a tutor. Best ones are high school kids. For $20 and a pizza, they would love to show you how to do this kind of math that they have done since elementary school.

Thanks for the information guys, this has been interesting.

Sadly once one is bounced out of a program around here it is *very* difficult to get into another. If the original school won't take you back the options range from limited to nil.

Specializes in Cath lab, acute, community.

The whole way through nursing school I was HORRIBLE with calculations, but once I actually put it in to practice and had experience, and sat down and imagined the medication, or the IV drips, and what I was after I could work it out. These days its rare that I get something that stumps me, and I use a calculator if I'm not sure. Also IV pumps these days tell you how long remaining etc, so that helps avoid errors.

When I was studying I used Google to search for various websites that could help me by giving me test questions and answers so I practised that way too.

Specializes in Oncology, Medical.

It's possible, trust me. My sister was academically strong but struggled with some aspects of math, though not all, so her math grades were never consistent. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, so perhaps this is your friend's weakness. Is it possible to overcome? Probably, but it just takes extra work.

As others have already said, math is one of those subjects where there are multiple ways of doing something. I always seemed to do math in weird ways. I once had a clinical instructor who thought I was being "dangerous" because I wasn't calculating IV drip rates in the traditional way (i.e. with algebra and formulas). I just had an understanding of it in my head and worked it out my own way. She grilled me with several questions on the spot and when I kept coming up with the right answers despite my "dangerous" calculation methods, she gave up and muttered something about me posing a threat to my patients >_> She did try to get me to work it out algebraically but I told her, I could technically do it that way but I found it more confusing than my own method and therefore was more likely to make a mistake that way.

+ Add a Comment