Any tricks to remembering normal lab values?

[scm0890]

Hello Everyone,

I am having difficulty remembering all the normal lab values. Does anyone know of any helpful tricks they used to remember them? All input is much appreciated ? Thank you!

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

scm0890 said:

Hello Everyone,

I am having difficulty remembering all the normal lab values. Does anyone know of any helpful tricks they used to remember them? All input is much appreciated ? Thank you!

Look at them like 600 times.

They only really stuck for me after reviewing patient labs over and over again.

[Leonardo Del Toro, RN]

There is no trick other than learning them. I made a power point with all relevant values, the first plate has Na, the second shows 135 -145 mEq. and so forth. I run the file and right it down on the paper. I do this once a day...pretty soon you'll know them for the rest of your life.

[craftysari44]

Great tip!!!!

[CharmantUn]

Here are the "stories" I made up for my med-surg exam:

CA is the abbreviation for California. How would you rate the weather in Calif., out of ten? 8.5-10.5.

Ca++ 8.5-10.5

There is an inverse relationship between Calcium (Ca) & Phosphorus (P). How to remember it's these two: CaP

Na: 136-145. I just think of hypertension and the relationship to salt. 136-145 (systolic) is prehypertension & stage 1 HTN.

K+: 3.5-5.0. No easy way to remember this one, but it's the most important electrolyte to know.

Potassium is mostly inside the cell, and sodium is mostly outside the cell, which is why the numbers are so different for serum values.

Hope this helped!

[mahoroty22]

before and after reviewing your content book, answering questions & understanding ratios.. i suggest reading you're own compiled laboratory values printed/written on a paper.. it worked from me :)

[atlr14]

I would recommend that you find words, phrases, numbers that mean something to you and use those in your memorization techniques. My examples are definitely geared to me and my experiences or thought processes, but hopefully they can guide you toward memorizing your own way. FYI, our values may be different from your book, these are the ones our college chose for us to memorize. Here we go................ Sodium...So Dumb....I think of that "almost politically correct" redneck by the red truck and guess he's around 135-145lbs. Potassium (K+ age of kids going into Pre-K....3.5-5.0 years old) These may not be right, but idk, so it works for me. Chloride (LORD I'D....95 sure sounds great...but Lord I've love to see 108 "one O eight") Magnesium....(Magneto was in school of mutants with Xavier from middle school to just out of college so 12-26 [1.2-2.6]. But they honed their skills before graduation in years 16-25. 1.6-2.5) AGAIN...keep in mind, my numbers may not match yours, it depends on the school. Hco3..bicarb (bike hard....if you're familiar with cycling, you know that you must BIKE HARD to average 22-26mph. Another is BIG CAR....22-26 inch rims) I knew a guy in jr high with a full mustache and could've grown a beard, so I remembered HGB..(He Grew a Beard between 12-18....jr high through sr high.) These are just numerous ways I memorized the values. Hopefully they are helpful, but ultimately, you have to make the values fit something familiar to you personally. Best wishes!!

[RN2be_Tiffany]

I really like your "Little word, little number; big word, big number trick! That is really helpful! I was just thinking, "Oh yeah, platelet count is pretty big (when you write it out like that), and the number is huge, 150,000 - 450,000"! Thanks for this!