A NCLEX question

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I was doing Kaplan QT and there was a question regarding medication administration, the answer doesn't make sense to me, so I posted here, anyone's opinion is welcome.

A client is ordered to take aspirin gr.X, PO. The drug label reads: Aspirin 325 mg per tablet." Which of the following action should the nurse make:

A. Request that the pharmacy send a correctly labeled medication.

B. Notify the doctor regarding the dosage.

C. Give one tablet.

D. Give two tablet.

The correct answer is D.

Isn't that too 50 mg more than the actual ordered dose? Is this practical in clinical setting? Thanks!

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Hi, I am not a nurse but my wife is and most of my family are in the medical field so I am not 100% sure but here is the answer. I am a computer guy so don't take my word for it.

one aspirin is 325mg or gr v. but gr v is 300mg. The reason for the unit to another. It is not an exact conversion but we use the nearest one.

so a gr x will can be considered 600mg.

gr v and gr x is an apothecary system and the inconsistency during the conversions is the reason why it is not used often.

Hope this helps.

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I know; 50 mg is less than a gr too much!

Interestingly, this exact question appeared on one of our quizzes not long ago; now I know where to find study questions! We were taught that this amount of overage is negligible and fairly inconsequential and to just give the two tabs.

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My school gave us dosage calculations questions every quarter. We couldn't miss one question. This exact question was given every quarter. gr x is 60x10=600

600/325=1.8 you round to 2 tablets

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There are two acceptable conversion factors to use for grain to milligrams:

1 gr=60 mg or 1 gr= 65mg. If we are using the second conversion factor, it should be 2 tabs even.

Thanks for making this clear.

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1 gr = 60 mg (you have to know this formula for your nclex) !!!!

there are x (10 gr) = 600 mg

so you give 2 tabs !!!

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The X is Roman numeral for 10, like the previous replied stated.

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Specializes in ICU, Nursing Education and QA.

Thank you so much for the info! It certainly does make things clearer.

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