How hard is nursing math?

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Specializes in Adult Stem Cell/Oncology.

I'm just wondering how hard nursing math is.....

I'm in a horrendous Chemistry class right now, and I'm just clueless as far as the math is concerned....

However, I took Statistics last semester and got an A. Are there usually formulas you use for dosage calculations? I have no problems with formulas and organized ways of doing math problems, but dimensional analysis makes no sense to me at all.

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! :redpinkhe

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Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.

I suspect you may be "horrendous" at chem because your math skill need work.

Nursing requires some of the math skills needed in chem - fractions, dimensional analysis, working with decimals. Everybody with an IQ in the normal range can, with practice, master these math skills. Go back and take algebra 1 again - or work your way through and algebra text book. The key thing to remember is that math is like playing sports. One does not get good at it by watching others do it - you gotta put in the time and work through the problems. Do an hour of practice a day, no more, every day. It will work wonders for you.

Stats is useful for understanding and interpreting the literature. If you can handle fractions and push the square root key on you calculator, you can handle a basic stats course. So I assume you are hip to fractions. Work on dimensional analysis problems. Get a tutor at your school to explain it again.

Good luck. Spend less time on allnurses and more time on math problems.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Progressive Care.

And another thing -

When performing dimensional analysis ALWAYS WRITE THE UNITS and remember UNITS cancel each other out. You may also want to google dimensional analysis and restrict the search to .edu domain. This will give you math info from math depts at colleges. Might be useful for you to see it done multiple ways.

Again, good luck. You will able to do this.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Dosage calc wasn't too bad. I hated converting grains to ccs.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

Nursing math to me was much easier than a "math class" because you can actually see a reason and need for what you are doing. I was never very good a math in HS,...I remember thinking why do I care which train will be here first if train # is traveling........

In nursing I do care about how many cc's of med are given to my 45kg pt. It's really basic math skills. Using the term "Dimensional Analysis" is just a fancy way of saying here is a big word problem,..this is what I have on hand,..this is what I need,..here's how you get there!

As with anything,.practice makes perfect and once you've done the 4,873,392 practice equations in school you wil do fine in the real world!

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Specializes in Pediatric ED.

Nursing math is way more straightforward than Chem math IMO. It's a little bit of basic algebra, if you aced stats you should be fine.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Cardiology, ER, ICU.

I too feel nursing math is much easier than other "math." I was sooo scared of math in nursing that my palms get sweaty just writing about it and that was 17 years ago!!!

Much of nursing math is memorizing a few formulas. The biggest thing for me has always been double-checking my math. When I prescribe meds I ALWAYS double check and I expect the administering nurse to do so also.

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I was never a good math student in high school but I had no problem with nursing math. I never bother with the dimensional math - if you learn how to set the problem up correctly, how to use a basic formula and have your calculator handy you will do fine. It's not that hard.

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Even the math we do for chemo is very simple - just straightforward plugging numbers into equations and then solving them. Of course you always double check yourself - even math geniuses can hit the wrong button on the calculator!!!

The hardest thing, like Mchigan RN said, is the stupid grains problems you have to do in nursing school. But guess what - I've only ever seen one order in 6 years that had grains as the unit! You'll be fine, don't worry!

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Math is my absolute worst subject! Hated it in school and dreaded it when I started nursing school, but I have to say Dimensional Analysis was a breeze compared to Algebra classes. I guess like others here are saying, it made more sense and I understood why/what I was looking for.....good luck!

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It's simple arithmetic.

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Specializes in Adult Stem Cell/Oncology.

Thanks for all the replies! I feel so much better now! :D

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