Help Emergency math for meds question! What does gr i ss mean???

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Specializes in Peds.

OKay so im cramming for my second year math validation exam and did most of the problems in the book and can't find this anywhere. I remeber that I knew it last semester in the class but its not in the book and i know it was all over the exam last year. but i cant remember to save my life and the exam is in 6 hours. Please HELP!!!!

gr i ss (with the line over the ss) to mg

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1 gr = 60 mg

The ss with the line over it means "half" - that help?

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Hey,

I'm not sure what the "i" stands for but the ss with a line over the top means one-half..

"gr" stands for grain,

One grain= 60mg

1/2gr= 30mg

This is the only thing I can think of for that problem..;)

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Specializes in Peds.

Thanks guys... I still cant figure out what the little i is but hopefully someone will know at school tomorrow. Ugh. Thats what I get for picking up too many shifts during my 2 weeks off and waiting till the last possible minute. Hope everyone is having a great time going back to school, back to school to prove to dad that i'm not a fool (billy madison anyone?) OKOKOKOK ill stop procrastinating even more and study. :nono:

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The i is like roman numerals. i is 1, ii is 2, iv is 4, etc Always with the squiggle over them and yes, the ss is 1/2. We just saw that on our ERI tests & everyone was thrown for a loop. I have only seen it in use in the MAR for PRN meds. When a patient could have 1 or 2 tabs, the nurse used this way to indicate how many she gave.

Dixie

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gr (grain) i (one) ss (half) is 1/2 half grain

the little i is the roman numeral for 1. You might see it as i or I. With grains it tends to be the smaller case i. therefore ii would be two and iii would be three.

so in the case of the gr i ss it means 1/2 grain which converts to 30 mg (since 60 mg is 1 grain)

Hope you read this before you left for your exam

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gr (grain) i (one) ss (half) is 1/2 half grain

the little i is the roman numeral for 1. You might see it as i or I. With grains it tends to be the smaller case i. therefore ii would be two and iii would be three.

so in the case of the gr i ss it means 1/2 grain which converts to 30 mg (since 60 mg is 1 grain)

Hope you read this before you left for your exam

Are you sure? The way my teacher explained it, the ss would mean an additional 1/2. So it would be 1 1/2 grains. I'm not saying that you are wrong. I'm just confused now.

:uhoh3:

Dixie

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Are you sure? The way my teacher explained it, the ss would mean an additional 1/2. So it would be 1 1/2 grains. I'm not saying that you are wrong. I'm just confused now.

:uhoh3:

Dixie

Oh wow:o! I was looking at the example in my book that read gr ss i which is 1/2 grain! Yes Dixie, you are absolutley correct. gr i ss is 1 1/2 grains which would be 90 mg. (1 full grain = 60 and 1/2 gr =30 so he answer would be 60 and 30 making it 90mg.

so, so sorry. It was really early when I read the post.

Oh and wanted to add that roman numerals are in upper cases and apothercary notation i in lower case.

Arabic number 1, 2, 3

Roman Numeral I, II, III

Apothecary Notation i, ii, iii

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CT Pixie,

I guess we both learned something. I hadn't realized that ss i would mean 1/2 or that ii would be apothecary notation. I was just told it corresponded to the Roman numerals. I wondered why they didn't just use capital letters then. Now I understand.

Thanks. I am about to graduate from PN school in a couple weeks. How much you want to bet, I won't see this on the NCLEX-PN? If I do, I have you to thank and hopefully this helps the original poster.

Now if this would only help with my Acute Med/surg GI & GU test this morning.:uhoh3:

Dixie

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CT Pixie,

I guess we both learned something. I hadn't realized that ss i would mean 1/2 or that ii would be apothecary notation. I was just told it corresponded to the Roman numerals. I wondered why they didn't just use capital letters then. Now I understand.

Thanks. I am about to graduate from PN school in a couple weeks. How much you want to bet, I won't see this on the NCLEX-PN? If I do, I have you to thank and hopefully this helps the original poster.

Now if this would only help with my Acute Med/surg GI & GU test this morning.:uhoh3:

Dixie

just like IV is four..not 6..you read it 5-1=4, the ss i would be 1 - 1/2=1/2. Whenever there is a smaller number before a larger one (IV, IX, etc or ssii) you subtract the smaller from the larger to get the number.

I have 9mths and 6 days (14 hrs and 49 minutes)before I graduate PN school...but who's counting :lol2:

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1 grain=60mg and ss means half so iss will mean one and a half thus giving u 90mg of the dose

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Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.
1 grain=60mg and ss means half so iss will mean one and a half thus giving u 90mg of the dose

^^^ You do realize this thread is 4 years old and that the OP is likely gainfully employed somewhere? :D

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