Drug Calculations Test

[Tigger100S]

Yeah, ok, I guess I'm an obnoxious new poster!

I told you I'd have a lot of questions!

Anyways...the nursing school I'm at requires a 90% passing grade on the medication calculations test given before clinicals. I might be tranfsering to another school around that time, and one school I am looking at requires a 100% to pass!! My question is, to anyone who has taken this already, what kind of questions are on this thing?? And are their any good books you could recomend to me in preperation for this test? Math is my weak spot, though I am working on it. Only days left of my summer session math class...next week A&P II starts...wish me luck!!!!!!

[boggle, ASN, RN]

Hi Tigger,

If you can measure ingredients to follow a recipe, you can probably do medical math too!!!

The type of calculations you will most likely see would include:

converting mg. to micrograms, and grams to mg,

"word problems" like....The doc ordered 500 mg of amoxicillin liquid po now. The label on the bottle reads Amoxicillin 250 mg per 5 ml. How many ml do you give?

or... one tablet contains 50 mg, dose ordered is 75 mg. How many tablets do you give?

or.... Could be IV calculations How many cc per hour to give if 1000 cc are ordered every 8 hours.

that sort of stuff!

The back of my Saunders Nursing Drug Handbook has a review of calculating drug doses. Check your med book!

Your basic nursing texts and Nursing Skills Texts have chapters dealing with medication administration and calculations. There are several formulas to determine dosages. Hopefully your teachers let you use the formula that works for you.

Your faculty (and school librarian) can recommend other books and study material too.

Is this your first semester?? Check your assigned reading list again to see if you overlooked a book or chapter.

I used to practice by looking at the various meds my family had at home and playing around with the numbers- how many mg per tablet? How many micrograms per tablet? ( you see micrograms a lot with thyroid meds) How many mg in one and one half tablet?......Stuff like that.

This is stuff you HAVE to know to be safe passing meds. Most of the calculations in real life are not that hard. Learn the basics now (and in real life, ask another nurse to double check your calculations when you are having a brain freeze!!!)

Good luck on your test.