Dosage calculations exam -rounding

[PCU RN]

ok the problem i'm given:

admin 0.003mg PO. available 0.05mg/ml.

i come up with an answer of = 0.06ml

would i round the 0.06 to 0.1ml or actually give 0.06?

test is tomorrow so any advice is greatly appreciated!!

KristinCarter said:

well, just got finished speaking with the instructor - she said in real life situations it will be different, but for testing purposes, 3.0-3.4 = 3 tablets, 3.5 = 3.5 tablets, and 3.6-4.0 = 4 tablets

That's unfortunate because it overbiases the extremes and underbiases the median...

NOR is it rounding to the nearest half-tab as stated.

This is a sorry commentary on the lame math skills found even in some nursing faculty.

[SpaceCowgirl, BSN]

True - the rules were never specified, which is why on the quiz I rounded 3.6 to 3.5 (the nearest half tablet) just using common sense. In all honesty, I think they just don't feel like changing anything at this point in the semester and its going to confuse a lot of people down the line ....

[Charlies7711]

Can you tell me if you have the answer of 0.9975 in regards to heparin will you round it to 1?

[203bravo, MSN, APRN]

Charlies7711 said:

Can you tell me if you have the answer of 0.9975 in regards to heparin will you round it to 1?

Generally your program will tell you this information... BUT we would need your measurement to know how to offer any advice --- 0.9975 WHAT? gtts/hr? mL/hr? units/kg/hr? It may change the response you get..

For example .. if this is gtts/hr... well you know you cannot give a partial drop of anything... so it would obviously round up to the nearest whole number.

you can give less than 1 mL/hr or less than 1 unit/kg/hr -- many programs will say to round to the nearest hundred here and may even go further to advise to go 2 decimal places for such high risk drips.

now the practical answer to your question would be yes round to 1.0 since it is 0.997 now matter what the rounding rule is it would trigger 1.0