Need some encouragement re: IV's

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I've been slogging away part-time in school for over three and a half years. I did it while keeping two jobs, and maintained an 86% average. I wasn't a good student in high school, and I've always had poor self-esteem, so this success always astonished me!

However - after three years, working two jobs wore me down. After some advice on this board, I quit one job, went down to two shifts per week at the other, and enrolled full-time this September. I've had to take out a student loan to do it. I am broke!

Fast forward to now. The classes are really tough this semester. It's our last one before pre-grad, so I guess that's the way it is. I am doing ok - not as spectacularly as I once was - but holding my own in most classes, a B average.

Here is my dilemma. I am in my final Pharmacology class. This class consists of online quizzes, three in class tests, and ONE IV flow rate exam that is done on a computer in the school test centre. You MUST get 80% on this test.

I got 44% :(

I am devastated. I am horrific at math, but luckily have a good friend who is a math teacher, and she tutors me for free. She got me through the last class, but that was dosage calculations. This test, I got confused, panicked, didn't understand some of the questions, there were tons of decimals involved - I admit I was totally underprepared.

I have two more shots at this test. My tutor is coming over tonight, and twice more before my next scheduled attempt. If I fail again, I will keep going. But I'm panicking that if I don't get 80% I will be kicked out of school! I do well on the other pharm tests, that only have a small component of IV flow rate questions. And the IV questions on those tests seem really simplistic compared to the other one.

Do you think they will toss me out of school for this one test????? I know that the NCLEX is "only one test" as well, so I do see the irony of my question. But I'm losing hope!

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The big problem is the IV flow rate exam? There are a few simple formulas for doing IV flow rates. There is a book that has helped me: Dosage Calculations made incredibly easy" pub by lippencott. It hasn't made it incredibly easy, but it provides the formulas for the flow rates. All you have to do is plug in the numbers. Sometimes the problem is that we plug in the wrong number in the wrong place. If you prepare, you will do well on the exam.

It's true that NCLEX is only one test, but it is on many aspects of nursing. Try not to compare this test to NCLEX, because it will only serve to raise up your anxiety soooo much.

Good Luck. I recently had to do a bunch of IV flow rates as part of a Med Administration test to work at a hospital, and I was sort of surprised at it, luckily I knew the formulas!

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Specializes in Telemetry.

I don't know about your school, but at the nursing school I went to I never heard of anyone getting kicked out for the math exam. Though the threat was constantly there and you had to pass with an 86%. Learn the formulas and you can do it! Sometimes they throw in fillers and it can really throw you. Remember to look at what the question is really asking.

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Thanks guys.

Looking back, I set myself up to fail.

I only studied with my math tutor for one evening, we only practiced very straightforward examples, I worked a double the day before, and I rushed from Clinical to get to the test.

No wonder I failed!

I am going to get that book. The questions were very complex i.e. you have an IV with the volume of X with a rate of X and at 0900 you realize that it is XmL behind, what rate do you set so that it finishes in the time allowed?

I got completely puzzled and screwed up. AND my basic math is very poor, so I wouldn't be surprised if I just rounded up or down the wrong way, had a decimal in the wrong place, etc. etc. etc.

I'll keep trying!

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Specializes in Pediatrics Only.

Just a thought..

Try the book "Dosage Calculations Made Incredibly Easy" by Springhouse Publishing.

I was HORRIBLE at dosage calcs, and this book really helped.

In fact, all of their incredibly easy books are really good, I recommend them all.

Good luck :)

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I agree with the post up there where someone said to get the lippincott book about calculations made easy. It's wonderful!

Also....I know when I was in nursing school, we had to pass a drug math test every semester to continue in the nursing program!

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