dosage calculation

[waterwater]

hi there,anyone please help me how to solve this dosage calculation using dimensional analysis.

A patient is to receive Digoxin 0.25 mg IV push at a rate of 0.5 ml/minute. The ampule contains Digoxin 0.25mg/ml. How many milliliters of Digoxin would you administer and over how much time would you administer this dose?

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

So you just did dimensional analysis in your head

I'm not going to argue with you about whether or not I did true dimensional analysis because, as I said, I don't "get" it. I wouldn't know if I did or not!

Setting up the problem on paper with all the fractions and canceling out takes me a lot of time, and I usually do it wrong if I have to show my work.

And, that's my beef with pushing one particular method. Each student needs to find a method that works for him or her, and stick to it so it can be practiced throughout school. For the simpler ones where the answer is jumping off the page without doing a single pen-and-paper calculation (like this one), don't make it harder than it is with a long equation. That's where we'll mess up time and again.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

Additionally, I am opposed to giving out answers on the message board - not only because it defeats the point of having the student work through the problem but also, if it is part of an assigned problem set, giving the OP the answer constitutes Academic Dishonesty. Poking and prodding the OP to get them to figure it out for themselves is one thing, giving them the answers outright is quite another.

If the OP was required to show work through dimensional analysis (which was implied by the question), I didn't give the answer. At any rate, one is assuming that it was a graded assignment, rather than practice.

My response provided a different way of looking at the problem that could help more people than the OP, especially the ones who have been so caught up in method that they are having problems actually seeing the simplicity of many dosage calcs.

[dudette10, MSN, RN]

I feel like a real idiot. My problem is setting the problem up. Always has been, that's why I had so much trouble with word problems in school.

The one poster gave me the answer so...

You're not an idiot. You just got so caught up in setting up a problem that the more direct way of doing it wasn't clearly apparent. (Which was my whole point...)

If you want to learn dimensional analysis, use the final answer I gave to work backward in setting up the problem. A lot of dosage calc books give answers to odd or even questions in the back. If I'm forced to work with a particular method, I keep doing it until I get the answer that's right. :)