Drug calculations in your head or calculator?

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I'm starting my ABSN program next month and just learned that we have a drug calc quiz on the first day (yikes!). Anyway, I started reviewing basic drug calcs and the book I'm using writes everything out long hand. At your school, are you required to do your drug calcs in your head or can you use a calculator? I'm terrible at math in my head.

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Ours let us use a calculator. I can't imagine that your school would want you mulitplying 12,184 x 11,897 in your head, or even using pen and paper... too many chances for a mistake and a mistake equals a dosing error. I mean, obviously it can be done, but the reality is in the clinical environment you will be using a calculator. JMO. :rolleyes:

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... too many chances for a mistake and a mistake equals a dosing error.

I didn't think about it like that....good calculator it is! Thanks.

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It is very possible to do calculations in your head. I love math and I do calculations in my head when I go shopping but in the medical field, will do it in my head,if I can,and also check with a calculator. You are taking care of humans and a little math mistake can cause a big health problem, sometimes even kill a person.

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My school makes you do the first quarter dosage calcs WITHOUT a calculator. After that quarter you are allowed. I guess it is to be sure you can handle division, decimals etc? Seems kind of weird to me and I am not comfortable without my calculator.

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Specializes in Med Surg.

We aren't allowed to use a calculator. I'm not sure why you'd need one. This isn't complex math; it's to your benefit not to have to rely on a calculator.

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We aren't allowed to use a calculator. I'm not sure why you'd need one. This isn't complex math; it's to your benefit not to have to rely on a calculator.

Actually, I think it's to the patient's benefit for me to use a calculator...

Here's one of the problems I was looking at today: 42 x 1/9450 x 3/0.02. Now I know this isn't rocket science, but I certainly cannot do that in my head. Long-hand written out on paper, sure, but math is not my strong suit and the room for error seems a little too high (especially for me).

I appreciate the responses from everyone, but what's simple for some isn't so much for others. It makes me a wee bit nervous to think that I'd have to calculate a patient's medication dose without the use of a calculator.

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It is very possible to do calculations in your head.

Speak for yourself! :lol2: My mom is amazing at math in her head...that is one thing I did not inherit...trust me, I've tried and tried, but I swear, when it comes down to it, my mind goes blank. I'm so much more visual and need to see the numbers written out in front of me.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Rehab.

I'm not sure why they would expect you to know how to do them without any prior classwork, unless it is to baseline the students coming in. In my school, it all comes under the heading of "dimensional analysis" and the idea is that you write the whole equation out in long hand and then you can use a calculator for the final number crunching. And they won't let you use anything more than a simple calcuator, nothing with advanced functions on it.

A lot of the number crunching is pretty basic and can be done in your head, like figuring out how many pills to give a pt or how long a bottle of pills may last. When you start getting to drip rates for IV's then it becomes a bit more involved...

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I'm not sure why they would expect you to know how to do them without any prior classwork, unless it is to baseline the students coming in. In my school, it all comes under the heading of "dimensional analysis" and the idea is that you write the whole equation out in long hand and then you can use a calculator for the final number crunching. And they won't let you use anything more than a simple calcuator, nothing with advanced functions on it.

I'm starting an ABSN program. We have a drug calculations quiz on our first day. I can't imagine it would be too involved, although, they expect quite a bit of us before we even step into class the first day. I've done dimentional analysis in Chemistry and loved it, so if that's all it is, then I'll be fine.

Thanks for the comments everyone, I'm feeling a little more at ease.

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Speak for yourself! :lol2: My mom is amazing at math in her head...that is one thing I did not inherit...trust me, I've tried and tried, but I swear, when it comes down to it, my mind goes blank. I'm so much more visual and need to see the numbers written out in front of me.

I was speaking for myself lol. I also said it is very possible to do, anything is possible. You don't inherit math skills, you have to find a way to learn it. I know it is possible because when I was young I used to be so dumb at math and I was forced to learn it and now I am good at it. By the way don't freak out because the dosage calculations are easy and simple-- and you are going to learn it. It takes a little practice. It's not calculus 2 or 3.

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Wow...how can you have a quiz the 1st day? That's crazy! Anyway, we're required to buy this $12 calculator from the bookstore and we're only allowed to use that. I would never feel confident doing it in my head, that's when accidents can happen, IMO.

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