Drug question

[jrw03282009]

Don't worry, I am not asking for advice on a drug I am actually giving

I need to know something in pedi medication administration

When figuring a dose, would you round to tenths like you do for an adult or would you go with the hundreths?

We have been told two different ways and people are getting things mixed up. When on the floor and you are actually figuring a dose for an infant, what do you do?

I want to say hundreths but others say tenths. It seems on an infant, that can be a serious difference.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

We usually round to 10/ths in PICU but NICU rounds to 100/ths. They also have infusion pumps that can be set to two decimal points while ours can't. (We round weights to one decimal too, where they go by grams and not kg.) When you consider that you have absolutely no guarantee that the volume in the syringe is precisely the volume you think you have, it's not such a huge deal.