Dosage calc for ATI testing

[Ellie.D]

For those of you still in nursing school, or back in nursing school, can someone familiar with ATI testing confirm a rounding question?

I was taught never to round a dosage calc answer until the end.

We are being taught to round the patient weight to the 10th (if asked to convert lbs to kg midway thru the problem) then clear the calculator, and use the rounded weight to calculate the dose (if mg per kg, for instance.)

I can follow the instructor's rule fine for tests she writes, but don't want to bomb my ATI. Does anyone know how ATI does it when the weight isn't the final answer? We have no practice tests where we can review the correct answer afterward. And I contacted ATI but their rule sheet they sent doesn't address this question.

Thanks!!

[bjwojcik]

It seems like your teacher is making it difficult for those students who use dimensional analysis and set the entire problem up before doing any calculations.

[student_B, ADN, RN]

This caused me some mistakes early in nursing school for the same reason. I learned that ATI wants certain numbers rounded in each step in the calculation while other figures can be left as is. I think it was specifically the need to round the lb-to-kg numbers before calculating dosage. I recommend following what was stated (round to tenths), since I kept getting ATI questions wrong until I started rounding. That was a tough transition having just finished two stellar semesters of statistics. Just one of many reasons I strongly dislike mandatory use of ATI (though it could be very useful if reformed)...