Frustrated with online Pharm - suggestions?

[foreverLaur]

So I'm taking pharmacology entirely online. We've had two quizzes so far and they've both bothered me.

Question #1

The nurse is administering ear drops to a child. After positioning the child's head so the affected ear is turned toward the ceiling, the nurse pulls the pinna:

I was confused by "child" because that could be a pretty wide age range. I picked up and back because when I was taught while working for a major hospital system as a nurse aide was to pull the ear up and back... hence my answer of up and back. I know you are supposed to pull the ear down and back (the correct answer on the quiz) for a child, but that is only for children 3 years of age or younger and the question did not specifically give the age of the child and since children can be 0-18, I opted to go with the child being over 3 years of age since that covered a much wider span of years.

The professor disagreed with me and thought I should have assumed that child meant under 3 years of age and he wouldn't give me credit for the question. The topic was NOT covered in our notes or textbook either so I had to Google it to learn more.

Question #2 was about a co-worker who wants me to give her dosing information on Ritalin which was recently prescribed to her son.

Well, a son can be 0-100+ years old!! It is pretty safe to assume that the son is under 18 years of age, but that still makes a difference in dosing information. I e-mailed the professor asking for the age of the son (as in real life, you would know the exact age) but he said that was giving away too much information.

As of now, I put a ton of varying information on dosages. The information I found in the textbook said pediatric dosing is usually 6 years of age of under so I wrote both the pediatric and the adult dosing but I'd really like to know the exact age (or even weight) so I can give completely accurate information!

Am I overreacting? Are these really things we shouldn't need to know or is the professor not giving me enough information to fully and accurately answer the questions?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Shanimal]

Am I overreacting? Are these really things we shouldn't need to know or is the professor not giving me enough information to fully and accurately answer the questions?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

No, I don't think you're overreacting. I also wouldn't have thought "child" automatically meant 3 years old and under, and while it's probably safe to assume that "son" means someone 18 years old or under, as you've mentioned the doses can be quite different within that range.

When I took pharmacology online, I often had points deducted from tests and homework assignments because I was provided with information too subjective to conclude with the "correct" answer. However, my instructor was overall pretty accommodating and adjusted my grade as long as I could give a compelling reason for my responses. It seems like you don't have that kind of instructor

If it's any consolation, at least you're developing excellent assessment and critical thinking skills You'll make a fine nurse :)

[caliotter3]

I would have thought son meant child and would have wanted to know the age and weight because of pediatric dosing. So I agree that you weren't given enough info. Seems that this illustrates the problems that can arise from online pharm courses.