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Discussion

Math for an RPN

I was wondering what kind of math skills a Practical Nurse needs to know. My math skills aren't the greatest and was thinking of brushing up on this subject before I start school in Sept. Thanks for any advice.

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    • Featured Replies

    I'm in RPN program level 3, and the math we needed was taught to us and explained. Basically we had to write a math quiz in level 2 and we had reviews before it and we knew what type of equation we were gonna have. Also in level 3 we had to write a dose calculation test, which was again taught to us and reviewed many times. the fist quiz consisted of long/short devision, multiplication, adding/subtracting, functions (2/3+2/5). Hope it helps:)

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    • Experts

    You will definitely want to brush up on your metric conversions. You also need to becomfortable with converting fractions into decimals and decimals into fractions and fractions into percentages. Dosage calculation math is a little tougher to explain because it is not so much the difficulty of the math as it is looking at the word problem and knowing how to set it up accordingly. You also have to weed out the extra information they give you in the question to confuse you. The RPN program that I did had a math class that just focused on dosage calculations but it was fairly fast moving so those that were weak at math had to scramble. Many programs, like the one I went to have dosage calculation tests that you must get 100% to pass. One of my classmates failed because of these tests.

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    Math in RPN is so easy! All it is, is conversions for example mg to g, if the medication isn't predispenced and you have to calculate the correct dose. Then there's IV math, and there's a very simple formula that you use to calculate drip rates. It was so simple, almost everyone always got 100% every time.

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    Thanks. I was starting to freak out a bit about the math. Conversion I can handle and as long as the iv math is explained well than I should be okay. I'm so excited to start school in Sept but i'm also starting to get nervous as well. It's going to be such a busy hectic 2 years and I just want to do well. I think it's the unknown that is hard. I did go to the open house at the College and the Professors said as long as you study and do your work you will be fine. I'm just anxiously waiting for Sept!

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    Your teachers will assume you know nothing related to medical math...if you do have trouble once you learn the formulas don't hesitate to ask for more help! It's not rocket science, but getting the hang of where to put which numbers can be a little confusing at first especially if math doesn't come easy for you.

    Most hospitals will have charts or calculators for conversions. For example my hospital has a Kg & cm to lbs & in chart and we have a special calculator program on the computer for calculating creatinine clearance.

    See if you can get your booklist and buy the math books now and start to go through it.

    Good luck in your program! Stay keen and you'll be fine :)

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