Math Question(s)

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Okay so we have our math test monday and have to get 90%...ive been practicing my butt off and I've came across one that I just can't get the computer generate answer for:

A client's order reads "aspirin 15 gr now." How many gms will be administered?

Here's my math

gm = gm/1000 mg x 60 mg/gr. x 15 gr./1 = 0.9 gm ...there are no trailing numbers when I do my calculation!

That's what I get but the computer answer says 1gm.....am I missing something here, maybe I'm just having a brain thud after doing math problems for two days straight.

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Hmmm. I think it's very difficult to *administer* 0.9 g (does aspirin even come in 0.1 g denominations?) - so you will *administer* 1 g.

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I worked it out in my head -- because I know that 15 gr is = 1000 mg and 1000 mg is 1 g. Hope this is right and hope it helps.

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lol ........your totally right, how would you administer 0.9gm of an aspirin :lol2: LOL...see, my brain has just hit a thud of doing math problems for day two now.....thanks!!! I did manage to take an hr 15 mins off to watch grey's anatomy and now I'm really upset that I have to wait 4 months to see what happens next!!!! Okay now back to math problems....

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lol ........your totally right, how would you administer 0.9gm of an aspirin :lol2: LOL...see, my brain has just hit a thud of doing math problems for day two now.....thanks!!! I did manage to take an hr 15 mins off to watch grey's anatomy and now I'm really upset that I have to wait 4 months to see what happens next!!!! Okay now back to math problems....

I can feel your pain, lol. The only reason I caught this was because I worked a similar practice math problem earlier this semester on the 'puter (and was about banging my head on the keyboard coming up with the wrong answer every time) when my 17yo son came in and looked over my shoulder. He caught it right away.

It was something having to do with *how many vials* will you need, and I kept coming up with 3-1/2 every time, and of course he felt GREAT about pointing out that it was going to take 4.

[talk about feeling STUPID!!!]

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I just hope I don't freak out like that in the actual test lol....I have to remember *READ HOW THE MED IS AVAILABLE* lol.....ahhhh we take our test before we even start summer semester!!! Glad to get it done and out of the way though...again thanks :)

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

The conversion factor for this is 1 gram = 1 grain. If you're a purist, 1 gram = 15.432 grains.

By dimensional analysis:

15 grains
X
1 gram
/
15 grains
(conversion factor)
=
1 gram
(amount to give)

If you do this using the other conversion factor, you still get:

15 grains
X
1 gram
/
15.
432 grains
(conversion factor)
=
0.972 gram
=
1 gram
(rounded off)

Take a break.

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Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.

For your math test, pay close attention to what they're asking. Lots of questions give too much info and I missed a question on the amount per day instead of the amount per dose. Another question many missed is to pay attention to the labels. Every one of our math tests has a label that was the wrong med.

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