Dosages

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Hi everyone,

I am starting nursing school on Monday. I have been looking over my books and have a question. Do nursing schools typically let the students use calculators on the dosage tests? Or is it all by hand? I was looking at my book and they use some pretty odd/large numbers, so that is why I ask. Thank you!!!

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Specializes in Correctional Nursing, Orthopediacs.

We are allowed to use a simple calculator. When i mean simple it only adds, multiplies, divides and subtracts.

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I know at my school the first semester no because they wanted to make sure you really knew simple math. Anything after first semester yes.

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At my school we can use a normal simple el chepo calculator. We are expected to know any formulas such as F to C conversion in order to find the answer.

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You are very wise to be looking at dosage calculations before school starts. Many students struggle with the calculations and the metric system from what I have seen.

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Specializes in Correctional Nursing, Orthopediacs.

If you can learn dimensional analysis it will serve you well.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

if you are worried about mistakes and not being able to use calculators make sure you do each problem twice or do an opposite calculation to make sure you did your math correctly (ex: do subtraction to confirm your addition is correct and do multiplication to confirm your division is correct.)

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I hated nursing math, I'm starting second year and scared!

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We are able to use a simple calculator for our dosage exam we take each semester. If there are dosage questions on lecture or lab exams though, we need to be able to do these on our own.

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We're allowed to use a simple calculator for our dosage exams. I agree with a previous poster that it is good that you are considering them now. I'm in my second semester and dosage questions are popping up on exams and quizzes (we can use a calculator for those as well). We have one more mandatory dosage test in our last semester.

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We have a test at the beginning of every semester and we get to use a very simple calculator, but they don't put any math on our regular tests. Med math is challenging, but I just do problems over and over, all I can find, and the formulas are sticking in my brain now! There are some good practice sites listed in the math thread on here, I believe I posted 2-3 myself.

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We were allowed to use calculators (but not calculators on cell phones) both for tests and in clinical settings. On every unit I've been on (as a student) there have been calculators available; I carry a small one in my pocket, so it's faster than looking for the unit's calculators. As you get more practice, you don't really need the calculator though. I'd still memorize the formulas, but would carry a small "cheat sheet" in clinicals b/c there would be times where I was so stressed out and I would blank out. This way if I forgot (temporarily) in front of instructors, it showed forethought/preparedness on my part. My instructors have said this, so it wasn't embarrassing or anything; it's just stress. Hope this helps.

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