Med Calculation exams

Could be something that the facility requires of all its nurses, new or seasoned. You should find out on your first day, I suppose! Good luck!

Every facility I have been employed in since 1976 has required a pharmacology, IV drip rate calculation, and medications dosing calculation competency. They usually do it the first week of nursing orientation and remediate as necessary. Usually the first day a study guide is given.

Also, if you work in an area where cardiac monitoring is standard you are expected to pass a dysrhythmia exam. This includes calculating rate, PR, QRS, QT intervals, treatment, medications, doses, etc.

Congrats and Good Luck.

It depends on the facility or type of dept requirements . Many do require med testing. Brush up on a few basic calculations just so you will be prepared. Good Luck in your new position.

This is not really related to the original question, but it reminded me of something I wanted to ask. I am in school right now for LVN, and I got into an argument with my teacher when she lectured dose calc for peds.

The question said the child weighed 20 pounds 4 ounces. She told us to calculate it as 20.4 pounds. I argued that this was incorrect since there are 16 ounces to a pound... the correct way to write it would be 20.25 pounds.

Am I correct? I did the math "her" way so that I could make a 100 on the test, but in real life, I want to know how I should be doing it.

jennifer - i have not even begun nursing school, but common sense tells me you must be right. Your teacher sounds useless :s.

I haven't had to do a med calculation test since nursing school.

This is not really related to the original question, but it reminded me of something I wanted to ask. I am in school right now for LVN, and I got into an argument with my teacher when she lectured dose calc for peds.

The question said the child weighed 20 pounds 4 ounces. She told us to calculate it as 20.4 pounds. I argued that this was incorrect since there are 16 ounces to a pound... the correct way to write it would be 20.25 pounds.

Am I correct? I did the math "her" way so that I could make a 100 on the test, but in real life, I want to know how I should be doing it.

In my school 20.4 would NOT be correct, in fact we have to be so careful with pediatric dosages on our exams that we must always round to the 100th when calculating the safety range even if over 1mL as well.

Thanks for the replies! I'm glad to know I was correct. I've only completed one semester, with 2 left to go. Next semester I take pharmacology... so the argument between me and the teach might get worse. She is really great, has been a nurse for as long as I've been alive and she admits her math is not that great. The problem is she teaches the dose calc from a packet someone else made for her, with all of the work already done... and I have 12 other classmates who may end up doing it wrong because of this.

You are correct. The weight would be 20.25 lbs. But don't you usually convert pounds to kilos, anyway? Most meds are calculated in mg per kg body weight.

20.25 lbs = 9.20 kg 20.4 lbs = 9.27 kg She needs to get someone she trusts to look at her math if she admits she is no good at math. Why is she teaching a course that includes math?!!!