Medical Dosages

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Reading the posts about safe medication dosing is scaring me, because I don't know them off the top of my head. I will be starting med-surg per diem at the hospital I work for, and will be hanging the piggybacks (including potassium) as well as narcatics. It seems that learning medications in general is an on-going process. I work in a clinic right now (plan to remain there, actually), but wish to get some bedside experience in order to have more under my belt. I am also noticing that even the most recent nursing drug books are not as updated as the PDR (however, reading the PDR is a CHORE for me). I have seen that the nursing drug guides do not always list all of the indications on drugs, but the doctors will tell me some foreign reason a drug is prescribed that I can't see in my resources. Sometimes, the wording in drug books seem a bit complicated to me, making me worry if I will be risking someone's safety.

What suggestions do you guys have to learning safe and toxic doses?

[EmmaG, RN]

Does the hospital have a subscription to Micromedex? So far, every hospital I've worked has had this available for staff use. Excellent, easy to use online resource.

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Does the hospital have a subscription to Micromedex? So far, every hospital I've worked has had this available for staff use. Excellent, easy to use online resource.

Yes, it does. Right now, I use the Care Notes section, because it is easier to understand the basic information. I guess I can start to pull up the drug summaries for safe dosages. It is very useful in the clinic, but harder on the floors, because the computers are all used up by other nurses or the doctors. Thanks for reminding me; I can scan it a bit more for the other advantages of having it in the clinic.

[liljsmom02]

Find a drug reference book that you are cmfortable with and buy it. Keep loking up medications when you give and before you know it, you'll know the meds you use most. I promise it takes no time to learn them once you start using them.

[suzanne4, RN]

Most IV meds will be pre-mixed for you and will come up from the pharmacy with the times that they need to infuse over. KCL always comes as a pre-mix from the pharmacy and is usually made by an outside company to prevent errors in administration, you no longer find the vials of KCL on any nursing unit.

As mentioned above, there are drug resources on-line as well as just phoning the pharmacist if you have a specific question, they are usually more than happy to answer them for you.

Best of luck in your new job.:balloons:

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Find a drug reference book that you are cmfortable with and buy it. Keep loking up medications when you give and before you know it, you'll know the meds you use most. I promise it takes no time to learn them once you start using them.

I am laughing because I already have 6 of them. The one I use the most is Nursing Spectrum 2008. What happened is while in school, my pharmacology class was a complete disaster. Most of the time, the professor didn't show up, came late, and basically didn't present the subject in an understandable manner. And, believe it or not, drugs were never brought up again really, until Med-Surg 2.

Since I primarily work in a clinic, we don't have this issue in the same way, because when we give the scripts, we do see the dosages, they are within range, and I make sure I ask about allergies. A few times, I had to go back to the doctor to have him change something because the patient had allergies to aspirin, penicillin or a cephalosporin.

Per diem in med-surg scares me because I cannot fill my pockets with that drug book, so, I may carry my PDA. Thanks for the advice, and I will keep you all posted.