I Need help with Medical Math...

Nursing Students LPN/LVN Students

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hello there. i'm not an lpn as of yet, but i will be in 2008 permitting if i pass the test. i'm not really good in math and i have disliked it all my life. as you know, nurses need a lot of math in order to do doseage calculations, ht. and wt., surface area, drug doseages for peds, monitoring iv, giving im, sq, or id injection etc...i hope math won't be my downfall as a nurse because i really love nursing! does anybody have any suggestions about an easier way to do mental math for drug calculations??? any help will be appreciated. thank you so much. :):):)

Ur welcome missy. and I thank you for all your support as well. I know that you will pass that class with flying colors! Pls let me know how it goes. I know what you mean about the math. Math used to scare my too, I was never able to do mentally. Give me pencil and paper and I'm fine, but mentally, that's a challenge. But now that I will become a LPN, I find that math has a purpose. Math is still oh so very hard for me, but I want to b a nurse soo bad that I will do anything-- even go through tedious practice of math. To imporve your math skills, as well as mine, I think the more you practice it the better you will become. But you know, what makes math hard is that you have to think, a majority of nursing is just good judgement, common sense, and memorization skills. :nurse::nurse::nurse::):):)

Thanks for all of your advice and tips they are so helpful and have given me the confidence to keep tryin to get better at math and memorization!!!:idea::idea::idea: classes are going pretty good right now but the assignments are getting more challenging and harder but I know that if I keep trying and reading and studying I can pass these classes. I want to pass these classes and get good grades but I also want to fully understand these assignments so that i can be prouder of myself for passing these classes!! and if you need any help or advice just let me know ok!!!:):):) Keep me posted ok!!!

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Thanks so much, I am the same way if I can write it down and work out the math problem I usually get but mentally it's so hard!!! I am so happy for you-it's great that clinicals went well for you and I hope that wednesday went great for you too!!!I got a letter in the mail today from the Health Sciences Department of my CC and they wanted to know if there is space avaliable in Fall 2008 LVN program if I was interested and all I have to do is mark the box where it says yes and if there is space avaliable i will get to start this coming August 25th, 2008!!!and of course I marked yes and I will mail it tomorrow!!! I really hope that I get in!!! I cannot believe that Christmas is almost here and I still have to start my shopping!!! I hope that everyhting is going great for you and keep me posted ok:):):)

Hey missy. Your are very welcome for all the advice I have given you. OMG. I'm soo happy for you! I hope that they have space available that u do get into your LVN program on the 25 of August of 2008. Let me know as soon as you get in. Do you know how long that would be? Well, I just wanted to make a quick summary of how clinicals went on Wednesday. It went went even better. My resident ate two bowls of soup, and all her lunch that was on her plate. I managed to get her to drink more fluids, as she does not drinking much. I felt so accomplished!! Isn't that a great feeling??? And when we went back to class, my teacher graded our assessments and our nursing care plan and I got an A.:):) I'm ssooo happy because last time I got a B because I left a few things out on my previous assessment. Anyways, for my Xmas shopping, I already did most of it. I still have a few more to go. Well, I'm sure that if you study hard that you will continue to do good in your classes. Keep me posted and let me know how you progress. :nurse:

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OMG!!! Thank you so very much and I would really like to go through this together so if i ever feel down about math I have someone that knows what I am going through:):nurse:And thank for the support I really appreciate it. I am embrassed that i am so horrible at math but becoming a Nurse is my dream so I will study, study, and study, get a tutor if i have so that I will not only pass math when i start Nursing school but I know how to do it!!! I wish you good luck and keep me posted:nurse::D

This is my favorite forum so far! I too am embarrassed at my inability to do math! I am nervous because I have to take a test before I can apply for the LPN program and have to get a certain score in math and I am so nervous, especially since it's been....about 3 years since I had a math class! We'll all just pull through together

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This is my favorite forum so far! I too am embarrassed at my inability to do math! I am nervous because I have to take a test before I can apply for the LPN program and have to get a certain score in math and I am so nervous, especially since it's been....about 3 years since I had a math class! We'll all just pull through together

don't be embarrased about ur ability to not to math... Like I said previusoly, I am not good at math but I want to be a nurse so bad that I'll go through what ever it takes to be a nurse. Even if it involves math, I will learn it... I think if you have that motivation, thing anything is possible. Math will now having meaning to you, and becuase you are motivated, you are more likely to learn it. I wish you good luck on your test for the LPN program. Just practice your math over and over again. I'm sure that you will do fine. Calculating meds and height and weight is just simple basic math. I'm sure you'll get through. Just remember if your ever feeling down, you have allnurses.com forums. take care. I wish you all the best of luck and I know we can get through:):):) this together.

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Hey missy. Your are very welcome for all the advice I have given you. OMG. I'm soo happy for you! I hope that they have space available that u do get into your LVN program on the 25 of August of 2008. Let me know as soon as you get in. Do you know how long that would be? Well, I just wanted to make a quick summary of how clinicals went on Wednesday. It went went even better. My resident ate two bowls of soup, and all her lunch that was on her plate. I managed to get her to drink more fluids, as she does not drinking much. I felt so accomplished!! Isn't that a great feeling??? And when we went back to class, my teacher graded our assessments and our nursing care plan and I got an A.:):) I'm ssooo happy because last time I got a B because I left a few things out on my previous assessment. Anyways, for my Xmas shopping, I already did most of it. I still have a few more to go. Well, I'm sure that if you study hard that you will continue to do good in your classes. Keep me posted and let me know how you progress. :nurse:

That is so great and I am so happy that you got an A and got your resident to eat and drink her fluids!!! The letter my local CC sent said they would send out acceptence letters in May so I am hoping and hoping that I get in:):):)!!! And I will keep you posted okKeep me posted ok!!!

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Specializes in rehab, ortho, cardiac.

as an lvn your best friend is d/h.

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as an lvn your best friend is d/h.

thank you JON LVN. But,what is d/h?

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That is so great and I am so happy that you got an A and got your resident to eat and drink her fluids!!! The letter my local CC sent said they would send out acceptence letters in May so I am hoping and hoping that I get in:):):)!!! And I will keep you posted okKeep me posted ok!!!

Hello there Missy. I'm sorry if my post seemed to long. Thank you. I'm am extremely proud of myself becuase I had gotten my resident to eat more and drink more fluids! :) Well, I do hope you get in the LVN program. To wait for May will be a long time. I also wanted to let you know that I have clinicals on Monday (tomorrow) Yay! So I'll let you know how it goes. My teacher said that this time she will pick our residents. I wonder how that will go :nurse::nurse:

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Specializes in rehab, ortho, cardiac.

dose/have. for example, md orders lasix 40 mg po(this is the dose), what you have on hand is lasix 20 mg tablets, how many tablets are you going to adminster? to set up the the equation using dose/have it would look like:

lasix 40 mg/lasix 20 mg---->40/20---->2 tablets. soo, your answer is going to be 2 tablets

another example would be:

md orders megace 400 mg po qd, what you have on hand is megace 40 mg/5 ml, how many mls are you going to give?

dose/have----> (megace 400 mg/ megace 40 mg) x 5 mls---->400/40 x 5 mls---->

10 x 5 mls----> 50 mls.

hope this helps you out, im not to great at explaining things.

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Hello there Missy. I'm sorry if my post seemed to long. Thank you. I'm am extremely proud of myself becuase I had gotten my resident to eat more and drink more fluids! :) Well, I do hope you get in the LVN program. To wait for May will be a long time. I also wanted to let you know that I have clinicals on Monday (tomorrow) Yay! So I'll let you know how it goes. My teacher said that this time she will pick our residents. I wonder how that will go :nurse::nurse:

Don't worry your post wasn't too long. I wish you good luck and hope that your clinicals go great today!!! yuo should be proud of yourself for getting your resident to eat more and drink her fluids, that's great and that just reminds you of why you wanted to become a nurse:nurse::nurse::nurse:!!! That's why I want to become a nurse, to help people and make a difference!!! I am abut 4 weeks away from taking my first math class at my school-I will be taking to more math classes after this one, the one i will be taking in 4 weeks is basic math. Do you think that will help me to understand nursing math better? the next two math classes after basic math will be what my school calls Alegebra 1A and Alegebra 1B-I think that means Alegebra 1 & 2. I picked these math classes to refresh my memory and help me to understand nursing math better but it might be kind of hard because I will be taking them all online!!!:uhoh3::uhoh3::uhoh3: If I have any problems with these classes or i get stuck on solving any problems or equations will you help me, if you can? I would really appreciate it:):):)

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

there is help on the nursing student forums of allnurses at these sticky threads:

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there is help on the nursing student forums of allnurses at these sticky threads:

thank you so much i really appreciate your helpi will check these threads and website links out. i am really bad at math and taking these classes online scares me!!! i want to understand math better and not get so frustrated with it i want to become a nurse so bad and i don't want the fact that i am horrible at math to prevent me from achieving my dream. i will do whatever it takes to get better at math even if that means hours of studying, getting tutors or whatever else i need to do. thanks again for your very helpful post.

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