A NCLEX question

mezzie · Nov 15, 2007

Hi, I am not a nurse but my wife is and most of my family are in the medical field so I am not 100% sure but here is the answer. I am a computer guy so don't take my word for it.

one aspirin is 325mg or gr v. but gr v is 300mg. The reason for the unit to another. It is not an exact conversion but we use the nearest one.

so a gr x will can be considered 600mg.

gr v and gr x is an apothecary system and the inconsistency during the conversions is the reason why it is not used often.

Hope this helps.

donsterRN, ASN, BSN · Nov 15, 2007

I know; 50 mg is less than a gr too much!

Interestingly, this exact question appeared on one of our quizzes not long ago; now I know where to find study questions! We were taught that this amount of overage is negligible and fairly inconsequential and to just give the two tabs.

jc449 · Nov 15, 2007

My school gave us dosage calculations questions every quarter. We couldn't miss one question. This exact question was given every quarter. gr x is 60x10=600

600/325=1.8 you round to 2 tablets

ergito2 · Nov 15, 2007

There are two acceptable conversion factors to use for grain to milligrams:

1 gr=60 mg or 1 gr= 65mg. If we are using the second conversion factor, it should be 2 tabs even.

Thanks for making this clear.

jess2007 · Nov 15, 2007

1 gr = 60 mg (you have to know this formula for your nclex) !!!!

there are x (10 gr) = 600 mg

so you give 2 tabs !!!

phil03 · Nov 19, 2007

The X is Roman numeral for 10, like the previous replied stated.

nayeli0016 · Nov 19, 2007

Thank you so much for the info! It certainly does make things clearer.