Must know values/dosages

[cinja]

I am almost done and I feel like I don't know anything. What values or dosages should be memorized. I asked a nurse on the floor and she said why, they print out on the chart, you can learn them that way. I am just not sure which ones should be forever ingrained in my brain.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

I am almost done and I feel like I don't know anything. What values or dosages should be memorized. I asked a nurse on the floor and she said why, they print out on the chart, you can learn them that way. I am just not sure which ones should be forever ingrained in my brain.

Hi,

I'm assuming you mean labs and meds.....

There's no way for you to know all this upon graduation. My advice is to invest in a good drug book, and a lab reference book. You'll find that you give a lot of the same meds, and run a lot of the same labs. You will become familiar with the frequently used ones over time. The safest thing is to look them up. I've been out of school for 2 years, and I still look most of my meds up, since I work NICU/PICU, and it's critical that you get the dose and administration right. DOn't be worried. They can't teach you everything in school, and in the real world, we have to look stuff like that up all the time...

Best of luck~

Steve