New Nurse ICU Math Help!

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I'm a new nurse on the pediatric ICU, I've always been good at med-math and if you give me a problem I can do it, but I'm lost when in the room and looking at the medication/MAR/IV pump on what numbers to plug in and such. Does anyone know how to help? I know it's D/H xV. But on the medication label I feel like there's numbers in parenthesis and maybe if someone has an example? I think once I link my med math to the actual practice I'll be golden I just CAN'T get to the two to click. HELP!

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Are you sure the order in the computer doesn't include exactly what goes in the pump? My facility's pharmacy enters the order in the MAR with all information right there- and it's on the label printed by pharmacy that's placed on the med. Besides, D/H x V gives you an amount, not a rate. The amount should already be prepackaged- it's not safe to be giving only part of a bag of medication as that leaves lots of room for error.

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regardless what the machine/pump says, you should always be able to double check by doing your own math. here is a website that may be helpful to you. The nursing central app has a complete set of dosage calculators that are great too

DosageHelp.com - Helping Nursing Students Learn Dosage Calculations

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Why don't you provide an example, and show us how you would solve it. This will better help us to understand what you are doing and where you might be having difficulty; this will better help us to help you.

ETA: southpaw has give you excellent advice in learnimg how to work the problem in addition to merely plugging numbers in the IV pump.

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