How to answer ml questions?

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I was wondering: I just answered a Saunders question about 'how much would you draw up' and the answer came to 0.75 ml. So I put 0.8 (knowing that I couldn't draw up .75). It was marked wrong. For the NCLEX, do you type in exactly what the math comes out to be, or what you can actually give? What about for any rounding questions?

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I was under the impression that the only rounding we do would be IV drip rates since you can't count a portion of a drop. Did you read the rationale why it was wrong? I'm curious!

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I was under the impression that the only rounding we do would be IV drip rates since you can't count a portion of a drop. Did you read the rationale why it was wrong? I'm curious!

It didn't give a rationale as to why 0.8 was wrong; it just showed the math for correctly arriving at 0.75. Duh!

I was going by what we did in school, AND the Kaplan instructor saying that if you can't give something the exact way the math worked out, to round up. So, I gotta wonder about the nclex. Maybe in the tutorial before we start it says how to do that?

Anyone?

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Specializes in Pediatrics Only.

Answer correctly, dont round up.

0.75ml can be drawn up quite easily - you just need to grab a syringe that has enough lines on it for you to decipher the 0.75 mark.

I dont recommend rounding up on drugs. Lets just say this drug was 1mg/1ml. If 0.75mg were ordered, you would give 0.75ml. You wouldnt give 0.8ml, as that would be giving 0.8mgs. Does that make sense? You would be given too much in this situation.

What your Kaplan instructor said about "if you cant give something the exact way the math worked out, then round up" - with this she means if you get something such as 0.667 as a dosage. Pretty hard to give. In this case you would need to round up.

Hope that helps!

Meghan

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Answer correctly, dont round up.

0.75ml can be drawn up quite easily - you just need to grab a syringe that has enough lines on it for you to decipher the 0.75 mark.

I dont recommend rounding up on drugs. Lets just say this drug was 1mg/1ml. If 0.75mg were ordered, you would give 0.75ml. You wouldnt give 0.8ml, as that would be giving 0.8mgs. Does that make sense? You would be given too much in this situation.

What your Kaplan instructor said about "if you cant give something the exact way the math worked out, then round up" - with this she means if you get something such as 0.667 as a dosage. Pretty hard to give. In this case you would need to round up.

Hope that helps!

Meghan

It does! Thanks alot! I see the difference...and am glad I asked. Will give them exacts :)

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And there's usually an instruction that says "round to the nearest whole number" or something like that. Read those questions carefully and do specific instructions as regards each one..goodluck!

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You can draw 0.75 in a tb syringe.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I couldn't agree more. Just follow what's being asked and you will know how to handle it. God bless.

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