I will sit for the NCLEX in 3 days. I am practicing NCLEX questions with the Kaplan Qbank. I had no problem with dosage calculation until I came up with these two questions:
First I came up with this question:
The nurse receives an order to administer phenobarbital (Luminal) gr ii PO to a 3-year-old child. The label on the multidose vial reads 160 mg/5 cc. How many cc of phenobarbital should the nurse administer? Type the correct answer into the blank.
When you do the math, the result is 3.75 cc which is what I answered. But the correct response was 3.8 cc. Si I figured OK I had to round the result.
But then I had this one:
The nurse cares for a client receiving potassium chloride 25 mEq IV piggyback. The potassium chloride is labeled 10 ml = 40 mEq. Record the number of milliliters of potassium chloride that the nurse should add to the IV solution. Type the correct answer into the blank.
correct response: 6.25 (of course I answered 6.3)
The result is not rounded in this example, why? When am I suppose to round cc and when not? What should I do during the NCLEX exam?
Specializes in PHRN, ICU, CCU, ER, NICU, Flight Nurse.
Since the first med is PO and the second is IV, perhaps they have you round in the first one because it's very difficult to get PO meds to the exact hundredths, so rounding up or down to the tenth place makes sense for administration... since the KCL will be on a pump, via IV, you can enter in the exact rate/amount to the hundredths and it will infuse at that exact rate.
I'm sorry but this doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter if the medicine will be given PO or IV, or any other routes because you will end up drawing the medicine with basically the same syringe to get the right amount. You may use a 5ml-syringe for one and a 10ml for the other one, but that doesn't make any difference the graduation is the same (10th of ml) - as you know only 1ml-syringe has a graduations to the 100th ml. Also, KCL is not always given by pump but often piggyback (as it is in this example) - except of course in pediatric and NICU (I also worked a few years in NICU) where the rate administered is more sensitive, but again the route or way of administering won't change the way you draw the medicine in the first place.
Specializes in PHRN, ICU, CCU, ER, NICU, Flight Nurse.
oops, nevermind... I re-read your post and saw that you are, in fact, drawing up the amount you get in your answer for the second problem... I just woke up...a little groggy. Please disregard my previous post! Let us know if you figure it out!!
oops, sorry I read that after I already answered.
I will simply expect that they will tell me where and how to round the results as a couple people mentioned.
travleur
41 Posts
I'm sorry but this doesn't make sense. It doesn't matter if the medicine will be given PO or IV, or any other routes because you will end up drawing the medicine with basically the same syringe to get the right amount. You may use a 5ml-syringe for one and a 10ml for the other one, but that doesn't make any difference the graduation is the same (10th of ml) - as you know only 1ml-syringe has a graduations to the 100th ml. Also, KCL is not always given by pump but often piggyback (as it is in this example) - except of course in pediatric and NICU (I also worked a few years in NICU) where the rate administered is more sensitive, but again the route or way of administering won't change the way you draw the medicine in the first place.
Thx anyway.